Japan in the Era of European Expansion SSWH14:d

1. Japan in the Era of European ExpansionSSWH14:d

2. Time and Geography

4. POLITICAL

5. Japan • Japan became collection of provinces ruled by warrior-nobles (daimyo) in shogunate system • First European contacts in mid-1500s • Brought firearms and Christianity • Japanese distrusted Christianity • Began period of enforced isolation from the rest of the world

6. RELIGIOUS

7. First European Contacts - Christianity • Christianity arrived with Jesuits • Some of daimyo were sympathetic, converted • Most Japanese practiced Shinto or Buddhism Shinto symbol

8. First European Contacts - Christianity • Other changes were underway • Oda Nobunaga captured most of Honshu Island • Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea • Tokugawa Ieyasu began 250 years of the Tokugawa Shogunate Toyotomi Hideyoshi (left) Tokugawa Ieyasu (right)

9. POLITICAL

10. THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE • Only warrior class (samurai) and daimyo could own weapons • Began to withdraw Japan into isolation • Missionaries evicted • Japanese pressured to re-convert to Buddhism • Severed mercantile contacts • No foreigners could come to Japan or Japanese live abroad • Isolation (sakoku) lasted to mid-18th C Takanawa shogunate soldiers

11. Shogun, Emperor, and Daimyo • Shogunate at Edo, Emperor at Kyoto • True military and political power rested with shogunate • Daimyo were key players, so constant threat to shogun • Shogun played daimyo against each other through intervention, competition Shogunate at Edo

12. Shogun, Emperor, and Daimyo • Economic Advances • Growth of population, domestic trade • Merchants became more prominent • Not well respected, but increasingly wealthy • Money economy replaced barter • Banks, credit became more common Emperor Meiji moved the imperial capital from Kyoto to Edo 

14. SOCIAL

15. Peasants and Urbanites • Conditions for peasants improved little • Some protection from exploitation • Heavy taxes • Increasing misery led to rebellions Japanese villiage

16. Peasants and Urbanites • Cities grew rapidly • Edo had about 1million population • Clear urban class structure

17. Peasants and Urbanites • Most Japanese still lived in small towns • Farming, timbering, fishing occupations • Country life, rice culture were dominant images Small Japanese town

18. Taming the Samurai • Samurai had lost most of their prestige • Literally nothing for them to do • Not allowed to become merchants • Mass bankruptcies, social disgrace • Bureaucracy took place of feudal barons • Samurai ill-equipped for transition, sank into poverty, loss of status Samurai

19. AESTHETIC

20. Tokugawa Arts and Learning • Literature and its audience • Literacy rates were high because was popular form of entertainment • Haiku poems very popular • Kabuki drama • Realistic, satirical, sometimes violent • Wildly popular among upper classes Kabuki was wildly popular

21. Tokugawa Arts and Learning • Adaptation and originality • Fine arts • Specifically Japanese • Playful humor • Consciously close to nature • Merchants became important as patrons The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai

22. POLITICAL

23. Response to Western Challenge • Main emphasis of thought changed to Confucian ideals – concern with this world • Japanese Confucianism different from Chinese • Prepared daimyo for invasion of Western ideas, who showed little confusion or resistance • Educated classes familiar with science, technology at beginning of shogunate • But isolation meant no Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment • Western medicine was fairly well-known • Arrival of Matthew Perry • Absorbed ideas by choice, not force • West did not overwhelm Japanese • Rather, they adapted what they thought they could use

24. Southeast Asia • Little early contact • Limited to coastal towns, mainly commercial • Insular Asians were mostly Muslim • Bali was Hindu • Philippines had a Christian element • Mainland populations even less touched by Europeans

25. Southeast Asia • In 1700s, Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam dominated • Thailand and Burma were Hinayana Buddhist • Vietnam under Chinese influence remained Mahayana Buddhist • Khmer state of Cambodia divided between Thais and Viets • No visible European influence as late as 18th C

26. REVIEW

27. Discussion Questions 1. How did their enforced isolation impact Japanese culture and history? What advantages can you see to such isolation? What disadvantages? 2. The Tokugawa period is often referred to as an era of feudalism in Japan. How does the Japanese experience compare to the model of feudalism based on European history? What are the similarities and differences?