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Explore the life of aristocrats during the Heian Period in Heian-kyo (Kyoto), the heart of Japan's golden age. Discover the rise of the Fujiwara family, social positions, beauty standards, entertainment, art, literature, and the end of the Heian Period.
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Heian-kyo: The Heart of Japan’s Golden AgeEQ: What was life like for aristocrats during the Heian Period?
A New Capital • The emperor moved the capital from Nara to Heian-kyo (Kyoto) because he thought Buddhist priests had become too powerful and he wanted a larger, grander capital.
The Rise of the Fujiwara Family • Though the emperors claimed to be descended from the Sun Goddess, the Fujiwara clan controlled Japan for nearly 300 relatively peaceful years. • The Fujiwara gained control by marrying into imperial family and ruling as regents.
Rank was determined by the family one came from. The nobles received their wealth from taxes on the peasants. The rankings affected wealth, what a person could wear, how high a gate could be, and the harshness of punishments Social Position In the Heian Court
Courtiers prized beauty, elegance, and fashion. The ability to recognize beauty was valued over qualities like generosity and honesty. Men had small beards. Women had long hair, blackened their teeth, wore perfume, whitened their faces, put red on cheeks and lips, plucked eyebrows and painted them higher on forehead and wore many silk robes. Beauty and Fashion During the Heian Period
Entertainment in the Heian Court • Aristocrats had many games that tested athletic, poetic, or artistic skills. • Dancing was popular and bugaku combined dancing, music and drama.
Japanese carvers would carve individual parts of a sculpture and join the pieces together to create a single work of art. “Japanese painting,” yamato-e were often secular and had 4 main types: landscapes showing the 4 seasons, places of natural beauty, people doing seasonal tasks, and scenes from literature Sculpture and Painting During the Heian Period
Kana or “borrowed letters” was further divided between the more formal “katakana” and the simpler “hiragana.” Men used katakana; women used hiragana. Women become the great writers of the age. Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji, often called the world’s first novel. She also wrote a diary. Sei Shonagon wrote Pillow Book. An unknown noblewoman wrote a diary: The Gossamer Years. Writing and Literature During the Heian Period
The End of the Heian Period • The Heian period ended for three reasons: • The wealthy owners of large estates paid no taxes. • Law enforcement broke down and bandits roamed the land. • Struggles over land and power led to civil war and the rise of new military leaders.
Story Board: Ch. 21 Heian-Kyo: The Heart of Japan’s Golden Age EQ: What was life like for aristocrats during the Heian period? • You will create a story board based on your readings from Ch. 21 • On the cover include the title of the chapter and the essential question (on the whiteboard). • Remember a story board has three components for each section: • A summary w/ a title • A detailed illustration • A question not answered in text based on section • There are 9 sections • 21.2-21.10
A diary entry… • Pretend you are a nobleman or noblewoman living in Heian-kyo during the 10th century. You are keeping a diary of your impressions of daily life during that time period. Use your Story Board to help you create a diary entry that describes one day in your life while visiting the emperor’s court. Your diary entry should • indicate the date. • be written in the first person. Use “I,” “me,” “we,” and “us.” • have information about at least six aspects of your life. These might include a description of the capital city or your house, the leaders of government, your rank, what is considered beautiful or fashionable, what is considered bad manners, games you enjoy, art and literature of the day, or your attitude toward the poor. • include at least one tanka poem that expresses your feelings. • have at least three colorful pictures to illustrate key ideas. Add creative touches to make your diary entry personal. It should be free of grammatical and spelling errors and be approximately two handwritten pages. The following website will help you with the assignment. You should also use your text book Ch. 21 “ Heian-kyo: The Heart of Japan’s Golden Age”; pages 229-239.
Create an Outline: Example • Paragraph 1- Introduction (include social rank and city) • Paragraph 2- Describe House (include art yamato-e) (Picture) • Paragraph 3-Fashion and Beauty (manners?) • Paragraph 4- Things did for fun Kemari/Rango (Picture) • Paragraph 5-- Bugaku performance (Picture) • Paragraph 6- Poetry/writing include Tanka Poem • Paragraph 7-Commentary on the poor • Paragraph 8-Conclusion
Essay "A Visit to Hase Temple" "To my dismay, I found that a throng of commoners had settled themselves directly in front of me, where they were continually standing up, lying down, and squatting down again. They looked like so many basket-worms as they crowded together in their hideous clothes, leaving hardly an inch of space between themselves and me. I really felt like pushing them all over sideways.”
Poem "A Dialogue on Poverty" I happened to be born a humanbut I am no worse than others.Yet vests with no cotton,mere rags tattered and danglinglike sea-fleece, are hung on my shoulders.I'm this flattened hut, this leaning hut,on straw spread on the bare groundfather and mother by my pillow,wife and children by my feetsurround me, whimpering.From the stove no steam spurts up,in the steamer a spider waves its web,and rice-cooking forgotten,we moan like thrushes.
Example beginning December 8, 910 Today is my first day writing a diary entry and I have so much to share because we visited my uncle in Heian Kyo today; who just so happens to be a member of the emperor’s court. As we entered the city I was very impressed with the design of the city; all of the streets ran perpendicular with one another. It was so organized and it made it so much easier to know where we were going. When we arrived at the gates to my uncle’s home I noticed a tall fence going around the perimeter of his property. As we passed through the gates there was the most beautiful garden I have ever seen and the landscaping was perfect. His home was very large. It had spacious rooms with very little; except screens dividing the rooms and mats on the floor. The screens had beautiful scenes of nature painted on them; my father told me the art is called yamoto-e.
As I walked through the house I saw the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen walking to get behind a screen. She wore at least twelve layers of silk robes. Her hair was so long and beautiful and her make up was done perfectly. You can tell she spent so much time powdering her face, plucking and then drawing on her eyebrows, and placing the perfect amount of red onto her lips. As I was admiring her; my cousin came up to me and invited me to go outside to the courtyard. When I walked through the back doors I was very impressed with how peaceful it felt outside. My cousin then kicked a ball my way and introduced me to the game Kemari. In this game we kick a ball back and forth to each other trying our best to not let the ball hit the ground and keep the ball in the air. Our record for the day was keeping it up 22 times. It is my new favorite game to play.
Bugaku performance….. Poetry writing…..(Add Tanka poem here; remember 5,7,5,7,7 syllables) (5) Fragile old woman. (7) Grandchildren laughing outside. (5) The rose is withered. (7) One by one the petals fall. (7) One by one the buds open. Observations and feeling about the poor… Conclusion…
