Japan

Things happened, and the rest is history

1. 01

   The move to Heian-kyō

   Event

   What happened

   In 784 Emperor Kanmu moves the court from Nara to Nagaoka, and in 794 he moves it again to Heian-kyō, modern Kyoto. The moves take place after years of strain between the throne and the powerful Buddhist temples of Nara.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Heian-kyō stayed the imperial capital for over a thousand years, until 1868. The move gave its name to the Heian period. Historians often link it to the wish to escape the influence of the Nara temples, though other reasons, such as floods and court politics, are also given. Under Kanmu the court also campaigned against the Emishi in the north-east. Some historians suggest these long campaigns helped develop the military skills of provincial warriors, though how much they did is debated.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryShoku Nihongi. Official Japanese court chronicle, completed 797 CE, covering the years 697 to 791.
   2. BookFarris, William Wayne. Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan's Military, 500-1300. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
2. 02

   The Fujiwara regents

   Event

   What happened

   In 858 Fujiwara no Yoshifusa becomes regent for his young grandson, Emperor Seiwa, the first regent from outside the imperial family. Later Fujiwara men hold the posts of regent (sesshō) and chancellor (kanpaku) and marry their daughters to emperors. Fujiwara no Michinaga dominates the court in the early 1000s.

   ↓ The rest is history

   For about two centuries the Fujiwara ruled through the throne rather than replacing it, a pattern of indirect rule that later shoguns also used. Their court at Kyoto supported the golden age of Heian culture. The arrangement weakened after 1068, when Emperor Go-Sanjō, whose mother was not a Fujiwara, came to the throne, and retired emperors began to rule from behind the scenes.

   Sources

   1. BookHurst, G. Cameron. Insei: Abdicated Sovereigns in the Politics of Late Heian Japan, 1086-1185. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.
   2. BookAdolphson, Mikael S. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000.
3. 03

   Court culture and The Tale of Genji

   Event

   What happened

   In the early 1000s Murasaki Shikibu, a lady at the court of Empress Shōshi, writes The Tale of Genji, a long prose narrative of court life. Sei Shōnagon writes The Pillow Book in the same years. Both women write largely in the new kana syllabary, developed from Chinese characters during the Heian period.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The Tale of Genji is often called the world's first novel, though that label is debated. Its pages show the court of the Fujiwara age, and Murasaki's diary records her time there. Kana writing allowed a native literature to grow beside the Chinese learning of the court. The text became one of the central works of Japanese literature, read and copied through the following centuries.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryMurasaki Shikibu. Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji). Japanese prose narrative, c. 1000 to 1012 CE.
   2. BookMorris, Ivan. The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.
4. 04

   The Hōgen and Heiji disturbances

   Event

   What happened

   In 1156 a dispute over succession between a retired emperor and the reigning emperor leads to fighting in Kyoto, the Hōgen Rebellion, and both sides use warrior bands led by Taira and Minamoto men. In 1160 the Heiji Rebellion breaks out, and Taira no Kiyomori defeats the Minamoto leader Yoshitomo.

   ↓ The rest is history

   These conflicts showed that the court now relied on warriors to settle its quarrels. Kiyomori rose to the top of the court, became chancellor in 1167, and married his daughter to the emperor. He was the first warrior to hold such power at the capital. Resentment of Taira dominance was one of several causes of the Genpei War, which ended Taira power.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryHōgen Monogatari and Heiji Monogatari. Japanese war tales, 13th century.
   2. BookMass, Jeffrey P. Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.
5. 05

   The Genpei War and the Battle of Dan-no-ura

   Event

   What happened

   In 1180 Prince Mochihito calls on the Minamoto to rise against the Taira, and Minamoto no Yoritomo raises an army in the east. After years of war, the Minamoto fleet defeats the Taira at the sea battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185. The child Emperor Antoku dies in the battle.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The Taira were destroyed as a power. Yoritomo had by then set up a base at Kamakura and a warrior administration there. In 1185 he obtained from the court the right to appoint military governors and stewards in the provinces. These stewards gave him a hold on land across the country.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryAzuma Kagami. Kamakura shogunate chronicle, late 13th century.
   2. BookFriday, Karl F. Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Routledge, 2004.
6. 06

   Yoritomo and the Kamakura shogunate

   Event

   What happened

   In 1192 the court names Minamoto no Yoritomo shogun (seii taishōgun). He rules from Kamakura through a warrior government of vassals, called gokenin, whom he rewards with land offices. After his death in 1199, the Hōjō family, his wife's kin, take control as regents to the shogun.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The shogunate lasted until 1333 and left the emperor and court in Kyoto in place, so Japan had two centres of authority. In 1221 the retired emperor Go-Toba tried to overthrow the Hōjō in the Jōkyū War and lost. The shogunate then strengthened its hold. In 1232 it issued the Goseibai Shikimoku, a code of law for warrior society.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryGoseibai Shikimoku (Jōei Code). Kamakura shogunate legal code, 1232.
   2. BookMass, Jeffrey P. The Kamakura Bakufu: A Study in Documents. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976.
7. 07

   The Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281

   Event

   What happened

   In 1274 a Yuan fleet sent by Kublai Khan, with Mongol, Korean and Chinese troops, lands at Hakata Bay in Kyushu and fights Japanese warriors before withdrawing. In 1281 a much larger force, again drawn from several peoples, attacks, and after weeks of fighting a storm destroys much of the fleet. The Kamakura government had built a defensive wall at Hakata in the interval.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Japan was not conquered. But the defence was costly, and the shogunate had no new land to give as reward to warriors who had fought. Their discontent weakened the Hōjō. The Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba, a scroll commissioned by the warrior Takezaki Suenaga, shows him seeking his reward. In 1333 the Kamakura regime fell to Emperor Go-Daigo's supporters and to Ashikaga Takauji, a warrior of the Kamakura regime who turned against it.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryMōko Shūrai Ekotoba (Illustrated Scroll of the Mongol Invasions). Painted scroll commissioned by Takezaki Suenaga, c. 1293.
   2. BookConlan, Thomas D. In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Takezaki Suenaga's Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Program, 2001.
8. 08

   The Muromachi shogunate and the Ōnin War

   Event

   What happened

   After Emperor Go-Daigo's short Kenmu Restoration (1333 to 1336), Ashikaga Takauji installs a rival emperor in Kyoto and takes the title of shogun in 1338. Two courts, north and south, contend until 1392. In 1467 a succession dispute among the shogun's vassals begins the Ōnin War, which devastates Kyoto over some ten years.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The Ashikaga shoguns, under Yoshimitsu, patronised Zen temples, Noh drama and the arts, and ended the split between the courts in 1392. The Ōnin War broke the shogunate's control over the provincial lords, the daimyō. Japan entered the Sengoku, or Warring States, era of near-constant local war. In 1573 Oda Nobunaga deposed the last Ashikaga shogun, but the wars went on until unification was completed under Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu around 1600.

   Sources

   1. BookHall, John Whitney, and Toyoda Takeshi, eds. Japan in the Muromachi Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.
9. 09

   The kamikaze, the divine wind

   Folk tale

   The legend

   When the Mongol fleet comes to conquer Japan, the gods answer the prayers of the people and send a great wind, the kamikaze, that sinks the invaders' ships and saves the land.

   ↓ The rest is history

   A typhoon did strike the fleet in 1281, and Japanese sources of the time credit prayers at temples and shrines. The word kamikaze, divine wind, was already used for the storm in medieval accounts, and its fame as a national symbol grew later, notably in the wartime use of the name in the 20th century. The 1274 invasion ended without a major storm, and other causes are suggested for the withdrawal, such as the difficulties of the crossing. Archaeologists have found wrecks of the Yuan ships off Takashima, in Nagasaki Prefecture, which show the scale of the 1281 force.

   Sources

   1. BookConlan, Thomas D. In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Takezaki Suenaga's Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Program, 2001.
   2. PrimaryHachiman Gudōkun. Japanese Shinto-Buddhist text, c. 1300, recording prayers during the invasions.
10. 10

    Yoshitsune and Benkei

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    The young Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a brilliant general, meets the giant warrior monk Benkei on Gojō Bridge in Kyoto and defeats him. Benkei swears loyalty to him. After Yoshitsune wins the war for his brother Yoritomo, the brother turns on him, and Benkei stands guard as the hero is hunted down.

    ↓ The rest is history

    Yoshitsune was a real commander whose victories, at Ichi-no-tani, Yashima and Dan-no-ura, helped end the Taira in 1185. Yoritomo came to see him as a threat, and he was killed in the north in 1189 after being sheltered by the Fujiwara of Hiraizumi. The Azuma Kagami and The Tale of the Heike record his career. The bridge duel and much of Benkei's story come from later works such as Gikeiki, written in the Muromachi period, and from Noh and Kabuki plays. Benkei's historical existence is not well documented.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryGikeiki (The Chronicle of Yoshitsune). Japanese tale, 15th century.
    2. PrimaryHeike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike). Japanese war tale, 13th century.Account of the Genpei War, including Yoshitsune's victories.
11. 11

    The sword of the Heike and the sunken treasure

    Folk tale

    The legend

    At Dan-no-ura the Taira grandmother Nii no Ama takes the child Emperor Antoku in her arms and leaps into the sea, taking with her the sacred sword Kusanagi, one of the three imperial regalia. The sword is said to lie on the sea floor. Fishermen also tell that the crabs of the strait carry the angry faces of the drowned Taira warriors.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The Tale of the Heike tells of the child emperor's death and the loss of the sword, and it is the main source of the story. The regalia are kept hidden, and what became of them is not known to the public. Historical records say the court had to make do with a replacement sword. The Heike crab (Heikegani), with a shell resembling a human face, is a folk belief connected to the strait, and it is a later tradition. A cult of the drowned child emperor grew up at Shimonoseki, where a temple, Amida-ji, was associated with him from about 1191, and the present Akama Shrine took its form in the 19th century.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryHeike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike). Japanese war tale, 13th century.
    2. BookMcCullough, Helen Craig, trans. The Tale of the Heike. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.