history of japan

history of japan

this is an organogram, who shows the most Historical periods known in the history of Japan

A/ancient japan:

1. Jomon Period (13000 BC to 300 BC): the inhabitants of the Japanese islands were gatherers, fishers and hunters. Jomon is the name of the era's pottery.
2.  Yayoi Period  (300 BC to 300 AD): the rice culture was imported into Japan around 100 BC. With the introduction of agriculture, social classes started to evolve, and parts of the country began to unite under powerful land owners. Chinese travellers during the Han and Wei dynasties reported that a queen called Himiko (or Pimiku) reigned over Japan at that time. The Yayoi period brought also the introduction of iron and other modern ideas from Korea into Japan. Again, its pottery gave the period its name.
3. Kofun Period (300 - 538): a center of power had developed in the fertile Kinai plain, and by about 400 AD the country was united as Yamato Japan with its political center in and around the province of Yamato (about today's Nara Prefecture). The period's name comes from the large tombs (kofun) that were built for the political leaders of that era. Yamato Japan extended from Kyushu to the Kinai plain, but did not yet include the Kanto, Tohoku and Hokkaido.

B/classical japan :

1. Nara Period (710-794):A centralized government, with its capital in what is now the city of Nara, was established under a Chinese-style system of law codes known as the Ritsuryo system. Buddhism became the national religion, and Buddhist art and architecture flourished. Provincial temples called kokubunji were set up throughout Japan. It was during this period that the Great Buddha at the Todaiji temple in Nara was built. Histories of Japan, such as Kojiki and Nihon shoki were compiled, as was the celebrated collection of poetry called Man'yoshu.
2. Heian Period (794-1185):After the capital moved to what is now Kyoto, certain noble families,especially the Fujiwara family, gained control of the government, ruling on behalf of the emperor. The Chinese-style culture that had dominated the Nara period was gradually replaced by a more indigenous style of culture closer to the lives of the people and their natural surroundings. The palaces of the emperor and the residences of the noble families incorporated beautiful gardens, with buildings in the shinden-zukuri style of architecture. Literary masterpieces such as Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book were written during this period.

C/kamakura period (1185-1333): After the Genji clan emerged victorious in battles with the Heike clan, Yoritomo, the head of the Genji clan, established a military government in a fishing village called Kamakura and became the nation's first shogun, or military leader. This marked the beginning of Japan's 700 years of shogunate rule (it was only in 1868, in the Meiji Restoration, that the Emperor was restored to power) and the ascendancy of the warrior caste, known as samurai. Bound to their feudal lord by a strict code of honor, the samurai led a Spartan lifestyle exemplified by the tenets of Zen Buddhism, introduced to Japan in 1190, which espoused mental and physical discipline and had a tremendous influence on the arts and literature.

D/Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama Periods (1333-1600): With the fall of the Kamakura government, a new feudal government was established at Muromachi in Kyoto in 1336. The shogun led an extravagant life, building villas like the Golden and Silver Pavilions and the rock garden at Ryoanji Temple, which are still major attractions today. It was a time also of newfound cultural pursuits, with Noh drama, the tea ceremony, flower arranging and landscape gardening becoming the rage of the privileged class. In the provinces, however, trouble brewed as feudal lords vied for power, eventually erupting into civil wars that consumed the nation for more than a century. Mighty castles mushroomed throughout the land, built by feudal lords not only for defense but as a symbol of military strength and power.

E/Edo period (1600-1868): Tokugawa Ieyasu, who defeated other vassals of the deceased Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the Battle of Sekigahara and thereby gained control of Japan, established the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo (now Tokyo). The Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan for over 260 years, and for some 200 of these years the country was virtually shut off from foreign contact by the shogunate's policy of national seclusion. From the end of the 17th century through the beginning of the 18th century, a colorful, down-to-earth new culture developed among the townsmen of the older cities of Kyoto and Osaka. Ihara Saikaku composed his ukiyo-zoshi (books of the "floating world"), Chikamatsu Monzaemon portrayed tragic relationships between men and women in his puppet plays, and Matsuo Basho raised the comic haiku verse form to the level of a literary art. By the Bunka and Bunsei eras, at the beginning of the 19th century, this new merchant-class form of culture was also flourishing in the shogunal capital of Edo. The kabuki drama was in its heyday. The printing of books had become an industry. The art of the woodblock print (ukiyoe) was born, with Sharaku producing his portraits of actors, Utamaro his pictures of beautiful women, and Hokusai and Hiroshige their landscapes. 

F/Meiji Period (1868-1912): The Meiji Restoration, by which political authority was restored from the shogunate to the imperial court, ushered in a period of far-reaching reform. The policy of national seclusion was rescinded, and the culture and civilization of the West began to pervade every aspect of Japanese life. Japan's victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars enabled it to assume the stance of a modern, imperialistic world power. Modern Japanese literature was born with the publication of Futabatei Shimei's novel Ukigumo (Drifting Clouds), the first literary work to be written in the modern colloquial language.

G/Taishō period (1912–26): period in Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Taishō emperor, Yoshihito (1879–1926). It followed the Meiji period and represented a continuation of Japan’s rise on the international scene and liberalism at home. Politically, the country moved toward broader representational government. The tax qualification for voting was reduced, enfranchising more voters, and was eliminated in 1925. Party politics flourished, and legislation favourable to labour was passed. Japan continued to push China for economic and political concessions and entered into treaties with Western nations that acknowledged its interests in Korea, Manchuria, and the rest of China. Rural Japan did not fare as well as urban Japan, and an economic depression at the end of the Taishō period caused much suffering.

H/Showa Period (1926-1989) and Heisei Period (1989 to present):The financial crisis of 1927, which occurred in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 that devastated the Tokyo area, eventually led to a long period of economic depression. In these circumstances, the power of the military increased, and it eventually gained control of the government. The Manchurian Incident of 1931 launched a series of events that culminated in Japan's entry into World War II. This war ended in Japan's defeat, with Emperor Showa accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Japan rose from the rubble of defeat, going on to achieve an almost miraculous economic recovery, which has allowed it to take its place among the world's leading democratic powers.

References :

1. http://www.japan-guide.com
2. http://web-japan.org
3. http://www.jnto.go.jp
4. http://www.britannica.com