1. 7.3 Notes – Japanese Empire

2. Warm-Up
Look over your notes from yesterday and review with your table!

3. Great Wall of China Started around 221 BC.
The wall was lengthened and improved over successive dynasties.
Took 2,000 years to fully construct.
13, miles long and wall is about 33 feet high.
Wall was guarded by 1 million soldiers.
The winding Great Wall was built as a defense against the Mongol hordes coming in from the North.
3 Details

4. Overview
While China enjoyed stability, Japan experienced a period of turmoil.
Examples:
The emperor performed only religious functions
The Daimyo (dime-yo), people who controlled their own lands, waged war against their neighbors.
The “strongest eat and the weak become the meat” was a Japanese expression of the time.

5. The Japanese Class System
Emperor : The figurehead of society
Shogun: The most powerful military lord
Daimyo: Controlled their own regions of Japan.
Samurai: Professional warriors . They protect their daimyo’s land.
Peasants: Farmers and fishermen
Chonin: Merchants and craftsmen
*Although the emperor was the official leader of Japan, the shogun exercised the real power.

7. To help you remember the class system…
EMPEROR EVERY
SHOGUN SINGLE
DAIMYO DAY
SAMURAI STUDENTS
PEASANTS PLAY
CHONIN CARDS

8. Japan’s Class System
Under Tokugawa (toke-a-gow-uh) rule, to maintain social stability and limit future rivals, measures were introduced to freeze the social structure.
No one could change their social class or perform tasks that belonged to another class.
This strict social order helped maintain peace and stability.

9. Nobunaga (Ruler #1)
A time of local wars left Japan with a political system known as the Tokugawa shogunate.
The first leader to begin uniting the daimyo was Nobunaga (Noh boo Nah gah)
He announced that he wanted to bring the nation under one sword.
It took him ten years to do this, but he eventually did and in doing so, he became the most powerful man in the country.
He is murdered and Nobunaga’s best general is named his successor.

10. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Ruler #2)
Rose from a peasant to a high military position.
Forced Japan’s daimyos to pledge their loyalty to him.
Became a military dictator.
Imposed laws that prevented warriors from leaving their daimyo service to become merchants or farmers and he also prevented farmers and merchants from becoming warriors.
Locks in the class system so that there is no room for mobility.

11. Tokugawa leyasu (Ruler #3)
A third leader named Tokugawa leyasu (yay-a-sue) becomes the shogun.
He establishes his government headquarters in Edo (present day Tokyo) and builds the imperial palace there.
Reassigns the daimyos’ lands and gives the most productive lands to the Tokugawa relatives and gives the others (potential enemies) land that no one wants on the outskirts of Japan.

12. Daimyo Loyalty
Each daimyo was required to travel to Edo every other year, bring tribute, and remain in the shogun’s service for a full year.
This means that half the daimyos were directly under the shogun’s control at any one time.
Even when the daimyos returned to their estates, they had to leave their families at Edo as hostages!
Because the shogun exercised such control over the daimyos, it kept the daimyos weak, obedient to the shogun, and less able to rebel against the government.

13. Samurai: Those Who Serve
Wore symbols of authority, such as a sword and a distinctive topknot in their hair.
The traditional samurai code of honor, discipline and morality is known as bushido, or the way of the warrior.
Samurai were told to train equally in arms and “polite” learning, according to the principles of Confucianism.
The right to carry swords was restricted only to samurai, which created an even greater separation between them and the farmer-peasant class.

14. The Council of Elders
The Council of Elders (leading administrative body) was made up of the Tokugawa family and a select group of daimyos who controlled the government.
The metsuke, or the eyes and ears of the state, were a group of officials who assisted the council and reported on possible uprisings or plots. (Like secret policemen)

15. Tokugawa Ethics
Tokugawa ethics placed loyalty to the shogun above the family.
Duty and honor were central values.
Over time, Tokugawa rules for personal conduct evolved into complex rituals and etiquette.
Minute details came to have heavy symbolic meaning, in an effort to maintain conformity and control.

16. The Portuguese Come to Japan
The peace and order of the Tokugawa shogunate was interrupted when the first Europeans, the Portuguese, arrived in Japan.
Although the Japanese looked upon Europeans as barbarians, the warrior society saw that European weapons meant power.

17. Missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries soon followed the Portuguese.
One of the most notable missionaries was Francis Xavier
The earliest of the Jesuit priests who came to Japan
Admired the Japanese people.
To convert them, Xavier and the Jesuits adopted their customs.
Jesuit missionaries learned the importance of conversing in polite Japanese and even set up a tea room in their houses so that they could receive their visitors properly.

18. Contacts with the West
Xavier won the support of some local daimyos and Christianity spread to Japan, rapidly.
The Japanese loved western fashion and welcomed contact with westerners.
Even for those who had not converted to Christianity, Christian symbols became fashionable for the Japanese.

19. Japanese Seclusion
The leader of Japan began to suspect that Christian influence could be harmful to Japan.
He began to persecute Christians, killing them or forcing them to leave Japan.
More importantly it was decided that contact with outsiders posed too many dangers.
Therefore, they introduced a Seclusion Act that lasted 200 years.
This act forbade any Japanese to leave the country and added, “All Japanese residing abroad shall be put to death when they returned home.”

20. Daily Life
Social life in the cities took place in bathhouses, restaurants, and theaters.
Urban amusement centers provided employment for playwrights, artists, and poets.
As cities grew in size and population during the 1700s and 1800s, the ban on foreign contacts was gradually relaxed.
In fact, some Japanese began to study Western medicine.
Their interest in Dutch learning spread to Western science and technology.

21. Ninjas A member of a class of 14th-century Japanese mercenary agents .
They were trained in the martial arts and hired for covert operations such as assassination and sabotage.

22. Today’s Wrap-Up Create your own travel advertisement!
Pretend that you are a travel agent who is trying to sell a vacation to either China or Japan.
Make sure to include at least five pieces of information that we learned over the past two days, in your advertisement.
The best advertisements grab your eye with visuals so be sure to include your best drawing!

23. Geishas Professional entertainers
Trained in the arts of singing, dancing, and conversation.

24. Warm-Up Write down everything you know about China Food Culture
Fashion
Landscape
Location