JAPANESE CULTURE.

Acknowledgment

Above all, I would like to thank God for all the gifts He has bestowed upon me. I also thank Him for my wonderful parents who have taught me all that I know of Him, His teachings and have guided on the right path throughout the course of my life.

Next I would like to make a special reference to the brothers that I have made at the Javier. They have stood by me day by day and I know they will be there for me till the end.

I also would like to thanks my tutor and other English teacher that helped me for always been there for me, even though in a beginning I wasn’t caring about the monography.  Also a final thanks to myself for doing an amazing monography.    

Abstract

This monography will focused in three things Japan traditions and history during feudal times, also I will be exanimating the reasons of the rise of nationalism, politics and economy, this way you can understand why they get involved in world war two and today’s Japan.

Feudal japan was based in given power to the leaders of small armies that control large extension of land this way the emperor held no power over the people but instead these daymos had it, but the person with the most power was the shogun, for not to lose its important position the emperor declare the most powerful daymo as the shogun this way he could not risk his position.

During the imperialist time of Japan they had a goal in mind to took over Asia as one great empire and being Japan the head of this empire, so the rise of the nationalism and the technological advantages, and a better army lead Japan to begin a war against China that they won, but as always there are other countries who didn’t like all these actions, this way USA made an oiled embargo that lead Pearl Harbor attack form the Japan.

Once the war ends Japan begin a new era they change to the democratic state made serious changes in education, economy, and politics.  They could rise again thanks to the help they received form the USA, the only reason USA help Japan was to marked their domain in Asia and reduce soviet advanced in that part of the world.

Today’s japan is one of the world power and it is include in the G7 this are the most powerful nation in the world, this is because they implanted a good economic system and is the third largest economy in the world they have the lead in technologies and other international manners.

1. Japanese culture: history and traditions of Feudal Japan and Empire until its end in World War 2, and today’s Japan
2. Feudal Japan

1. History
2. Tradition
3. Art
4. Literature
5. Way of living

1. Japanese Empire

1. Traditions
2. History
3. Why it became a world power
4. Before World War II

1. Economy
2. Politics
3. Industry

1. During World War II

1. Why it gets involved in WW2
2. Reasons for being WW2
3. Economy
4. Politics

1. Japan after the world war II

1. How Japan changed after the war and what they did to resurge.

1. Today’s Japan

I: Politics

II: Economy

Introduction

The main objective of the following monography is to show characteristics and traditions referring to Japanese culture; also, people can learn how Japan became so influential to even start a war against the USA. After the defeat, literally, they were reborn from their ashes and became once again one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world that has the leadership in technology and other interests worldwide.

To understand the culture of japan first, you need to know their history: feudal Japan was losing power during the emperor’s reign since he was only considered to be a public face without any power. Shogun was the one who really had power over his army and the land they owned.

 A considerable amount of information has been written about Feudal Japan; however one of the most recognized books has been transcribed by Yamamamoto Tsunemoto on his book Hagakure. Which explain the way of life of the samurais.

The Shoguns were leaders of small armies that spread and had control of small properties all over Japan. All along this time the Japanese found their own identity and no longer had to imitate the Chinese people.

This investigation will be based on three chapters: the first chapter will go into Feudal Japan, its history and traditions; it will also look into their art, antiques, and literature. Feudal Japan has much to tell about samurais and the honor code they were bound to, known as Bushido. The second chapter is based on the Japanese Empire just before and somewhat after World War II and its effects it had on economy, politics and commerce, also how they keep growing after being defeated in the Second World War.

The third chapter will be based in the japan of today, which kind of government lead the country, what kind of economic had and as a world power in which global affairs they are in to.

Feudal Japan

This chapter is about how feudal japan began, why the emperor was losing power, its rise and how this changed the culture of the civilization by not imitating the Chinese, but creating their own cultural expressions, and of course I’ll write about the most interesting thing about this period in time “Samurais”.

  I: History

All began when the emperor power was declining for a period of time, that’s when military clans and armies of samurais began to have more control over the country, in the Genpei war from 1180 to 1185 the Minamoto clan rise victorious, their leader took the title of shogun and set up his capital in Kamakura. This shogunate withstood two Mongol invasions but in 1333, he couldn’t defeat a rival who also wanted to be shogun so he lost. During the new shogun of the Muromachi period, daimyo were great landholders and began to grow in power at the expense of this new shogun.  In Japan by 1336, a civil war appeared that ended the real power of the emperor.  The emperor sent armies of samurais to fight in his name the civil war, and when they come back they were given the title of shogun.

During the following years, different shogun controlled Japan, many civil wars passed between powerful families, the Mongolians attempted to invade Japan, but a typhoon destroyed the Mongolian army and saves Japan.

By the 1540’s, Portuguese ships arrived to japan carrying new items to Japan which they had never seen before, the most important object that Portuguese carried and were influential in feudal history were guns, and example of its effect in society was the Nagashino battle where two thousand guns were used to shoot against a samurai army who still carried swords, by the result of this battle the samurai power was seriously threatened. As years passed, other countries came to Japan expecting to commerce object but with this it also arrived Catholic missionaries.        

In the sixteenth century the daimyo Oda Nobunaga and his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi reunified japan, when Hideyoshi died in 1598; Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power and was given the title of shogun by the emperor.  His shogunate governed from Edo which is modern Tokyo, this period was marked by being prosperous and peaceful, this period of time is well known as the Edo period, and it also imposed a strict class system in Japan and cut the majority of contact from the rest of the world.

All this lead to a new form of control called feudalism, which is based in giving power to the leaders of different armies who controlled pieces of land all across Japan rather than one person controlling everything, these landholders were called daymos and to the most powerful of all it was granted the title of shogun by the emperor.

This new type of reign brought many changes in japan, the Yamato family remained as emperor but it was seen as a political figure without power because the shogun, daymos and samurais held the true power, other changes were that japan began to create their own unique culture and didn’t imitate the Chinese.

The end of feudalism in Japan began when western countries began to pressure the commerce between japan and them; this made the shogun loose power and later resigned from its charge; that is when the emperor was restored to power.  This marked the end of feudalism and began the empire by first adopting some western politics, legal system and constitutional government.

II: Traditions

In war times, it was a tradition to rip off their enemy’s head and show it to the shogun, that way the shogun congratulate and pay more to the samurais who brought more heads, but by the sixteenth century there was a fierce and great war against Korean, there were so many dead people that samurais only took ears and noses form their enemies because carrying all the heads were a problem.

The “geisha” appears as entertainment for professionals, mostly they were men who used make up and had artistic aptitudes like singing, dancing, acting, there were also women geisha, both types of geisha gave sexual entertainment, by the 1800’s there were more women geisha than men so the term was used to refer to women.

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