2. TCI Chapter 19: The Influence of Neighboring Cultures on Japan In What Ways Did Neighboring Cultures Influence Japan?

3. Introduction  From the 6 th to the 9 th centuries, Japan borrowed and adapted many cultural ideas from the Asian Mainland.  Some of these ideas include:  Religion (Buddhism)  Art  Literature  Philosophy  Government

4. Introduction  Many of these ideas originated in China and India and traveled to Japan via the Korean Peninsula.

5. Background  In 593, Empress Suiko came to power.  Her nephew, Prince Shotoku admired Chinese and Korean culture.  In 607, Prince Shotoku sent an official representative to the Chinese court.  Upper-class Japanese started traveling to China and Korea.  Groups of Koreans also came to Japan, bringing with them knowledge of Chinese culture.

6. Background  Over the next 300 years, Japan absorbed elements of culture—objects, ideas, and customs—from the Asian Mainland.  What is this process called?  Not only did the Japanese gain objects, ideas, and customs through cultural diffusion, but the Japanese blended these ideas together to create their own very unique civilization.  We will take a look at that process in this chapter.

7. 19.2 Cultural Influences on Japan  By the time Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku came to power in 593, cultural influences from the mainland had been reaching Japan for hundreds of years, BUT, Suiko and Shotoku encouraged contact and the pace of Cultural Diffusion quickened.

8. Japan during Empress Suiko and Prince Shotoku’s time:  Rural, agricultural society  People grew rice and other crops.  Upper class owned slaves and lived in houses with wooden floors and roofs of wood or thatch.  Common people lived in huts with dirt floors and thatched roofs.  Family life centered on the mother, who raised the children.  Fathers often lived apart from their families.  Women enjoyed a relatively high status.  Japan was not a unified country, instead power was divided among chiefs of a number of clans called uji.

9. Your turn  Read your assigned section and answer the questions in complete sentences. Be ready to present your answers to the class.  Some things to keep in mind as you work:  What was ‘it’ originally (in its country of origin)?  What did Japan have ?  What was the end result (of the blending)?

10. 19.3 Government: Imitating the Chinese System  Emperor is sole ruler.  Ruled with help of bureaucracy.  Government positions based on merit  Emperor has loose control over uji. Each Uji controlled its own land.  Depended on local leaders China Japan Japan - Borrowed style from China Created ranks for government officials Shotoku stated that Emperor is sole ruler (Seventeen Article Constitution) Tenmu took land from clan leaders and gave it to the Emperor Created strong central government with large bureaucracy Difference: Japan stayed an Aristocracy (not a Meritocracy like China!)

11. 19.4 City Design  Originally, cities just grew up haphazardly around rivers and other physical features.

12. 19.4 City Design  With a stronger central government and a large bureaucracy, Japan needed a new capital city.  In 710 the imperial government built a new Chinese-style capital on the site of the modern city of Nara.  The new city was a smaller version of Chang’an, China’s capital.

13. 19.4 City Design Both  35 square miles  Population – 2 million  Surrounded by a wall Nara  8 square miles  Population – 200,000  No wall  Streets laid out in an orderly, checkerboard pattern  A wide boulevard running down the center  In the northern section, Buddhist temples and monasteries clustered near the imperial palace. Chang’an

14. 19.4 City Design Nara Chang’an

16. 19.5 Religion: Buddhism Comes to Japan Shinto  Expresses love and respect for nature  Followers worship kami  Kami are impressive natural objects such as wind, lightning, rivers, mountains waterfalls, large trees, unusual stones.  Celebrates life and the beauty of nature Buddhism  sees life as full of pain and suffering  teaches that life is an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.  Followers must follow a moral code called the Eightfold Path  Emphasizes respect for others, acting rightly, and meditation  Buddhism began in India in the 500s BCE and came to Japan about 1000 years later.  Japan’s original religion was Shinto.

17. 19.5 Religion: Buddhism Comes to Japan  Buddhism did not replace Shinto. Instead, both religions thrived and even blended. Buddhists built shrines to kami, and Shintoists enshrined bodhisattvas. Even today, ceremonies to celebrate birth and marriage often come from Shinto, the joyful religion. Funeral ceremonies are Buddhist, the religion that acknowledges suffering and pain.

18. 19.6 Writing  Ancient Japanese was only a spoken language.  The Japanese had no writing system of their own.  Written documents were in Chinese.  Over time, the Japanese adapted Chinese characters to write their own language.  This was difficult because the 2 languages have different sounds, grammar, and punctuation.  By 900, the Japanese had developed kana.  Kana allowed the Japanese to spell out the sounds of their own language.

19. 19.7 Literature: Adapting Chinese Poetic Form  Earliest Japanese Poems – Tanka (written in Chinese characters)  Originated from Japanese songs  31 syllables—5,7,5,7,7  Usually devoted to love and the beauty of nature. Haru tatebaWhen spring comes Kiyuru koori noThe melting ice Nokori nakuLeaves no trace; Kimi ga kokoro moWould that your heart too Ware ni tokenanMelted thus toward me.  NOTE: Poetry between Taro and Aki-hime is this form developed further.

20. 19. 8 - Sculpture: Carving Techniques Travel to Japan  Earliest Japanese sculpture – clay figures of armored warriors, saddled horses, robed ladies, and objects such as houses and boats found around burial mounds.  Buddha sculpture travels from India and changes along the way.  Chinese Buddha – Stone, more primitive  Korean Buddha – cast bronze and covered in gold leaf  Japanese Buddha – Wood, more natural

21. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhas These Buddhas were created by a Chinese artist, a Korean artist, and a Japanese artist. How are they alike? How are they different?

22. 19.9 Architecture: Adapting Temple Designs  New forms of temple design came to Japan from India by way of China.  In India, Buddhist monasteries featured shrines called stupas with roofs shaped like bells or inverted bowls.  The Chinese replaced the bell shape with a series of stories and curved roofs, creating structures called pagodas. These towerlike buildings always had three, five, seven, or nine roofs.  Shinto shrines reflected Japan’s agricultural society and the Japanese love of nature.These shrines had raised floors and thatched roofs. Unpainted and undecorated, they blended in with their natural surroundings.

24. 19.10 Music: Adopting New Music and Instruments  Japan’s native music consisted of chanted poems, war songs, folk songs, and Shinto prayers. All were recited, using just a few notes.  As contacts with the Asian mainland increased, the Japanese imported music from the region, especially from China. Gagaku (gah-GAH-koo), a form of Chinese court music, arrived in Japan in the sixth century.  New kinds of music required new musical instruments. One of the most interesting was a wind instrument the Chinese called a sheng. The Japanese pronounce the name sho. The sho is a type of mouth organ. It was designed to look like a phoenix, a mythical bird. Its sound was said to imitate the call of the phoenix.

25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXXtZ7FAYOc