Japan

JAPAN

The islands of Japan, off the East coast of Asia, are home to an ancient and fiercely independent nation, which calls itself Nippon. Its early history is extremely mysterous and shrouded in myth, but at the beginning of the historical record (the sixth century) power centred on the Kingdom of Yamato, based in the Kansai Plain. The ruler of Yamato was the Tennō,traditionally translated as 'Emperor,' who claimed divine descent and had an important ritual role. From earliest times, the Emperor was acknowledged as the ultimate source of secular power, but a constant theme of Japanese history is the exercise of this power by some form of regent. In the prehistoric period this role appears to have been filled by members of the Mononobe and Soga clans.

The beginning of recorded Japanese history comes with the introduction of Chinese culture and writing. Chinese influence reached a peak in the eighth and ninth centuries, during which Confucian political ideas saw the Emperor assume a dominant role at the centre of a massive bureaucracy. This came to be dominated by a single aristocratic clan, the Fujiwara, who ruled as regents from the late ninth century. They controlled the provinces and enforced their will through several military clans, principally the Minamoto and Taira. Conflict between branches of the Fujiwara led to civil war in the 1100s in which these military clans did most of the fighting, and seized power for themselves. The first of these was the Taira in the 1160s, but they were overthrown by the Minamoto, who established the Kamakura Bakufu (1185-1333), a military government headed by a Shōgun and based in Kamakura, near modern Tokyo. It successfully repelled the Mongol Invasions, but struggled with rivalry among the military clans and a resurgent Imperial Court faction led by Retired Emperors.

In 1333 the Imperial Court succeeded in regaining secular power, but this outraged the military clans, who set up the Ashikaga Bakufu (1336-1573), based at Kyoto, which ruled in the name of a collateral branch of the Imperial family. While strong at first, the Ashikaga gradually lost control of the local lords, called Daimyō, who became essentially independant, and warred against each other to become the new Shōgun in a protracted civil war known as the Sengoku Jidai (The Age of the Country at War, from 1467).

The country was stabalised and reunified, first by the ruthless Oda Nobunaga, in the 1560s, and then by his supporter Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1580s. Toyotomi then invaded Korea in the Imjin War (1592-1598), bringing Japan into direct conflict with China. His forces were defeated and his clan was subsequently overthrown by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who established the Tokugawa Bakufu (1603-1868), based at Edo (Modern Tokyo). It maintained tight control over the feudal lords and kept japan almost entirely isolated from the outside world, but was unable to maintain this isolation in the face of the demands of the European colonial powers. In 1853 American warships sailed into Tokyo harbour and forced the Tokugawa to open Japan to Europeans, much to the distaste of the Japanese.

The Tokugawa were deposed in the Meiji Restoration (1868), which returned secular power to the Emperor, who set about modernising and westernising Japan. This were extremely successful, but a desire to mimic European Colonialism led Japan to invade and brutally occupy Korea and China and, eventually, to declare war on America (1941-1945). After their complete and utter defeat, democracy was imposed on Japan and the Emperor returned to being a powerless figurehead. This situation continues to this day.