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CLARK HIST 252 - Women in Medieval Japanese Society

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WOMEN IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE SOCIETYHISTORY 252Japanese civilization was one of the last of the great civilizations of Asia to develop. Written records for Japan go back only until the sixth century in the Common Era, and those are Chinese not Japanese accounts of the culture. The islands - four major ones - that form the archipelago of Japan stand inroughly the same relationship to Asia as the British Isles do to Europe. Just as Roman civilization slowly extended itself to Britain, so Chinese civilization slowly moved outward to Japan.Japan actually has about three thousand islands in a two thousand mile long chain with a land mass slightly less than California. The bulk of the population, though, is concentrated on the four principal islands of Hokkaido (the farthest north), Honshu (the largest), Shikoku (the smallest), and Kyoshu (the farthest south); and more on the eastern shores as the temperature is warmer there. In the south the climate is sub-tropical, but Hokkaido receives quite a lot of snow in winter. Japan has the same latitudes as the Eastern Seaboard in America from Maine to Northern Florida. Rainfall is moderate, though Japan is subjectto violent typhoons, and is very active tectonically, with both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to contend with. The islands are relatively poor in natural resources, and there is a definite scarcity of good agricultural land - only 16% of the land can be farmed, even though throughout its history the bulk of Japan's people have been farmers, and then fishermen. Much of the country is rocky and mountainous- and very beautiful.Legends say that the Japanese islands were formed as a result of the marriage of the God Izanagi and the Goddess Izanami. After giving birth to Japan, Izanami gave birth to the sun goddess, Amaterasu. The descendant of Amaterasu later descended to earth and became the founder of the Japanese. The Japanese emperor today is believed to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. At Ise, is thesacred temple built for Amaterasu in wood, which is reconstructed every twenty years. Nearby in the sea are the large and smaller rocks coming out of the water that represent Izanagi and Izanami with a golden chain between them symbolizing their union. Japan's early religion was basically animistic or universal nature worship. Later the Japanese gave their polytheistic religion the name of Shinto or "Way of the Gods" to distinguish it from Buddhism when that religion started entering Japan and competing with the native religious practices.The first historical Japanese period was the Yamato, 660 b.c.e. to 710 c.e., about 1400 years. It wasa decentralized government with rule by emperors or empresses. There was an early emphasis on the warrior class of nobles. From prehistoric times Japan was greatly influenced by Chinese culture. Almost every aspect of Japan's higher culture in the earliest centuries was borrowed from the Chinese: government,legal code, writing system, literature, religion, and art. The Chinese writing system was officially adopted by the Japanese in the fifth century c.e. Scholars lament that the Japanese used Chinese symbols to write spoken Japanese. As the Japanese language is phonetically quite different from the Chinese, learning to write Japanese was and is a laborious undertaking. To overcome some of this difficulty, many Chinese words were adopted by the Japanese, and scholars in Japan learned to read Chinese, not speak it. Later, it will be the women of the court that will develop the written Japanese. By the mid sixth century, Buddhism gained a foothold in Japan via Korea. By the late sixth century Buddhism was the religion of the Japanese court and by the mid eighth century it was the state religion. Little antagonism occurred between Shintoism and Buddhism in Japan, however. Frequently the same shrine was sacred to both faiths. Japanese priests whether Buddhists or Shinto did not constitute a hierarchy with coercive powers over people like in the West.During the Tang Dynasty in China (seventh through the tenth centuries), Japanese borrowings from China reached new heights: medical practices, military tactics, road building techniques, household furniture, dress, Confucian writings, and family sacrificing to their ancestral spirits. The Japanese Imperial system was almost an exact replica of the Chinese Imperial one.In Japan, however, the imperial family was never dethroned as in China, but the imperial government was never all pervasive, and the aristocracy had more power in Japanese society.In very early Japanese society, women held a position of prominence. Some clans were headed by women, and family structure was originally both matriarchal and matrilineal. This is remarkable only because of the extreme subordination of Japanese women in later eras. However, the transition to a patriarchal system was complete by the third century c.e., and polygamy was a common practice by that time, especially in the upper classes. Society was pyramidal in structure, with the highest rank aristocratic and hereditary. Slavery existed, but not in large numbers. Most slaves were simply personal servants.The Ama - communities of women divers as their oral traditions suggest, were matrilineal, matrilocal, and perhaps even matriarchal. Today women are still diving beneath the sea for pearls, seaweed, and abalone. Some of them today make nearly $100,000. These modern-day ama live in matrilocal 2communities, as do the Korean women who dive on Cheju Island. Even though Confucian’s ethical code had men claiming exclusive control of ritual, they also had contempt for manual labor. Confucian ideas devalue working women, but the irony is that is the women who support their families and run the village economy.Japan's history is divided into various historical periods with some overlapping. The Yamato period from 660 b.c.e. to 710 c.e. begins its history, but we think that some of the information for this period probably refers to the prehistoric Jomon Period.Decentralized government was the structure with rule by both emperors and empresses. Before the eighth century, half of the main rulers were women. We do have records and burial locations for some of these incredible impressive imperial rulers. Jingu, in described in Japan's first mytho-history the Kojiki or Recordsof Ancient Matters. She was a great warrior empress said to have led Japanese warriors on the invasion of Korea. Empress Jito in the eighth


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