Japan's Journey, Part 1

Friends, if you read the start of our last issue, you know that this year's G8 summit is in Japan. If you read the end, you know that of all the G8 countries, only the United States has a bigger economy than Japan. So today, we're going to back to school to learn the history of that island nation.

For centuries, Japan's emperors traced their lineage back to the year 660 BC. According to Shinto tradition, that was when Jimmu, a direct descendent of the sun goddess Amaterasu, founded the "Land of the Rising Sun."

But Japan first shows up in written history in ancient Chinese sources, which tell us that the Chinese emperor entertained emissaries from a tribal chief in the land of "Wo"--the Chinese name for Japan--in AD 57.

The Rise of "Wo"

Between the 4th and 6th centuries, local chiefs in the Yamato region, near what's now Kyoto, began consolidating control over much of "Wo." Meanwhile, an influx of immigrants from the Asian mainland arrived, bearing new technologies and cultural traditions, including Chinese writing, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

Impressed with the Chinese emperors' power, Yamato rulers imported Chinese political practices, too. In the 7th century, they centralized their control, replacing local clan chiefs with provincial administrators. In the 8th century, they built a Chinese-style capital at Heijo-kyo (modern Nara), complete with imperial court, burgeoning bureaucracy, Buddhist temples, and Chinese-style taxation based on land use.

The Rise of the Aristocrats

Yamato rulers ceased to be "chiefs" and became "emperors." But they weren't the only ones with new power. Buddhist priests acquired increasing influence until 784, when the emperor Kammu tried to escape them by moving his capital to Nagaoka. Ten years later, he moved the capital again--this time to Heian-kyo (modern Kyoto), where Japan's emperors would make their homes for more than a thousand years.

Despite Kammu's efforts, imperial influence declined in the centuries to come. Power shifted to aristocratic families--especially the Fujiwara, whose members frequently served as regents to young or otherwise impotent emperors. Centralized control of the empire slipped, and direct contact with China ceased. Bad news for Japanese emperors. Good news for Japanese culture, which thrived as Chinese traditions waned.

The Fujiwara effectively controlled the Japanese throne for much of the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries. Yet even in the 9th century, a powerful new class had begun to emerge: the bushi, or "warriors." You probably know them as the samurai.

The Rise of the Samurai

As the emperor lost power, local lords discovered a creative way to avoid taxes. They ceded their lands to Buddhist monasteries or court officials who enjoyed significant (sometimes total) tax breaks. In exchange for nominal rents, the lords then got their lands, called shoen, back--as "tenants" who, in reality, enjoyed more control than ever.

To protect their shoen and keep order in them, the lords raised private armies of professional soldiers--the samurai. In exchange for their services, the samurai initially received a portion of the lands' produce. Later, as the shoen grew, they often received their own lands, such that, by the 12th century, the samurai had effectively become the local ruling class in much of Japan.

Then, in 1156, a civil war broke out, driven largely by the ambitions of two powerful clans: the Taira and the Minamoto, both of which relied on the samurai. After defeating the emperor and the Fujiwara, the Taira and Minamoto turned on each other. The Minamoto prevailed. In 1192, their leader, Yoritomo, became shogun ("general-in-chief") and established a bakufu ("tent government") at Kamakura. The emperor survived and retained some influence, but real power rested with Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura shogunate.

The Re-Rise of the Regents

After Yoritomo's death, the Kamakura shoguns--like the emperors before them--soon found themselves ruled by their regents. And once again, a powerful aristocratic family, the Hojo, consolidated control without actually seizing the throne (or assuming the "shogun" title).

The Hojo picked a bad time to rule. In 1274 and 1281, Mongol forces under Kublai Khan attacked Japan. Miraculously, each invasion was interrupted by a powerful storm that blew in and destroyed the Mongol fleet. Shinto priests would call the storms kamikaze, or "divine winds."

Unfortunately for the Hojo, the kamikaze blew away more than the Mongols. New taxes, raised to pay for defense, weakened the economy and contributed to the regime's downfall. In 1333, an exiled ex-emperor, Go-Daigo, led a rebellion with the help of a warrior named Ashikaga Takauji, who became shogun. Three years later, Takauji turned on Go-Daigo, and the nation faced another fight for control.

Feudal State

Takauji eventually prevailed, but weak central government, violence, and civil war plagued Japan for the next 200 years, throughout the Ashikaga shogunate. Basically, Japan became a feudal state, ruled by local lords called daimyos and their powerful "knights," the samurai.

For a time, daimyo-on-daimyo violence seemed interminable. But eventually, the local lords lost out to a strong centralized state--a resurgent Japanese empire that would come to face the West. We'll see that empire rise in our next issue.