1. Medieval Japan Chapter 14 Section 3
The Japanese samurai were the main part of Japanese warfare. They handled all the weapons and did whatever the government asked. They followed a specific code called bushido which means “Way of the warrior.” Samurai used many weapons and tactics to fight wars. The samurai were very interesting in there ways of fighting.  The Japanese samurai have been around since the 12th century when small Japanese clans were fighting wars against each other. According to some historians, the reason for fighting wars was mostly for land.           The main clans fighting were the Taira, the Minamoto, and the Fujiwara. These three clans used the samurai to fight their battles for land. Eventually, the samurai came into their own class between the 9th and 12th century.             The samurai went by two names, Bushi, or Samurai. Samurai is the word that stands for knight and Bushi means warrior. Over time, the samurai became experts at fight on horseback or on the ground. The samurai have been around for almost 10,000. The Japanese samurai were ranked. The highest ranked samurai got to be the administrators. The middle ranked samurai get the privilege of fighting on horseback, and the lowest ranked samurai were foot soldiers or they had to fight on foot.             The samurai trained with armed combat such as a katana in hand, and trained with no weapons at all. The earlier samurai even used bows and arrows. Samurai were masters at fighting. They mostly used swords for close combat fighting. In the 13th century, they started moving more toward swords and started making spears. They then continued from mostly fighting on horseback, to fighting on foot.             As this change occurred, their code changed from kyuba no michi, “Way of the horse and bow” to bushido, “Way of the warrior.” Another change occurred in the 15th century when guns were introduced to battle. Because of this, armor also changed. The samurai battle gear and code changed entirely throughout 3 centuries. Samurai are great fighters and were great contributors to medieval Japanese warfare.

2. Life in Medieval Japan Reading Strategy cook Role of women
Complete the diagram on page 273 in your ARNTG.
Obey her father, husband, & son
Work in the fields
cook
Role of women
Artists, writers, & warriors
Spin & weave cloth
Help with family business
Care for children

3. Japanese Religion & Culture
Zen
Buddhism
Pure Land
Buddhism
Looked to Lord Amida, a Buddha of love and mercy
believers had to have faith in Amida and chant his name to get to his paradise in the clouds
Find inner peace through self-control and a simple way of life
emphasized martial arts and meditation
Sects of Mahayana Buddhism
The photo is of the Great Buddha at Kamakura.
The object of Pure Land Buddhism is rebirth into the Realm of Bliss.  This may be seen as literal rebirth into the Buddha-realm called Sukhavati and/or as experiencing the direct realization of the realm of the Purified Mind, in which a person becomes one with the limitless Compassion and Widsom which are the prime characteristics of Buddha Amitabha.  Pure Land Buddhism rests on the following tripod:
Faith.
Aspiration or the Vow for Rebirth.
Practice, single-minded effort aimed at Buddha Remembrance Samadhi, "Buddhanusmrti" in Sanskrit, "Nien-Fo" in Chinese.   Buddhanusmrti means "To stay mindful of the Buddha," and has been a central practice of Pure Land Buddhism since its beginnings.  Nien-Fo also refers to the recitation of the Buddha's name, among other practices.
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4. Japanese Religion & Culture
During the Middle Ages, Japanese people practiced both Shinto and Buddhism.*
When it reached Japan, Buddhism had divided into different sects, or smaller religious groups.*
*People worshiped at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. To them, each religion met different needs. Shinto was concerned with daily life, while Buddhism prepared people for the life to come. During the Middle Ages, Buddhist ideas inspired many Japanese to build temples, produce paintings, and write poems and plays.
*One of the most important sects in Japan was Pure Land Buddhism.
*So it won lots of followers. Pure land Buddhists looked to Lord Amida, a buddha of love and mercy. They believed Amida had founded a paradise above the clouds. To get there, all they had to do was have faith in Amida and chant his name.
Zen Buddhism is based on a single, esoteric idea: all humans have a Buddha nature inside them and to realize this nature all a human being has to do is search his or her inner self. The key to Buddhahood in Zen is simply self-knowledge. The way to gain self-knowledge is through meditation (which is what the word "zen" means). Now, "meditation" is one of the cornerstones of Buddhism, where, under the name dhyana , it forms the final and most important aspect of gaining enlightenment. But Zen (in Chinese, Ch'an ) or Meditation Buddhism granted meditation an exclusive importance not ascribed to it in other Buddhist schools. This is indicated by its very name: all other Buddhist schools either take their names from important Scriptures (such as the Lotus sect, which takes its name from the Lotus sutra) or from a philosophical position (such as the Consciousness-only sect) or an individual philosopher (such as Nichiren), whereas Zen takes its name from the practice of meditation. Meditation, which was a means to an end in other Buddhist schools, became the end in itself in Zen: meditation was Truth realized in action. As a result, Zen readily dispenses with the Buddhist scriptures and philosophical discussion in favor of a more intuitive and individual approach to enlightenment. Meditation, however, is a strict religious discipline: the mind must be made sharp and attentive in order to intuit from itself the Truth of Buddhahood. Part of this discipline involves waking up the mind of the disciple, making it aware of the things around it. There are several ways of doing this: motorcycle maintenance, hard labor, travel, and, in Japan, the koan, which is a question and answer session between disciple and master which involves sudden beatings and illogical answers all in an attempt to wake or stimulate the disciple's mind to make it ready for the discovery of the Truth inside.
Pure Land Buddhism was a sect of Mahayana Buddhism.
Its message is about a happy life after death.*

5. Japanese Religion & Culture
Zen Buddhism is another important sect of Buddhism brought to Japan from China.*
Zen teaches that people can find inner peace through self-control and a simple way of life.
*Buddhist monks brought Zen to Japan from China during the 1100s.
Followers of Zen Buddhism also practiced meditation, where a person sat cross-legged and motionless for hours, with the mind cleared of all thoughts and desires

6. Japanese Religion & Culture
Japanese art reveals the Japanese people’s love of beauty and simplicity.

7. Japanese Religion & Culture
Art in the Middle Ages included wooden items coated in lacquer, landscape paintings, folded paper called origami, and tea ceremonies.
Japanese buildings were influenced by Chinese or Japanese styles.
Shinto shrines followed the Japanese style; Buddhist temples followed the Chinese style.

8. Bottom - The Zenkoji temple in Nagano was to be the starting point for the Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images:
-- Temple withdrawn from Olympic relay due to concerns about the safety of the holy place if angry demonstrators showed up.
Usually a shrine was a wooden building with a single room and a roof made of straw. People entered the shrine through a sacred gate called a torii. Unlike Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples were built in the Chinese style. They had massive tiled roofs held up by thick wooden pillars and were richly decorated with statues, paintings, and altars.

9. Japanese Religion & Culture
The Japanese borrowed and adapted the Chinese style of writing using characters.*
Calligraphy, the art of writing beautifully, was important in Japan.*
*They wrote their language in Chinese picture characters that stood for whole words. Because the Japanese and Chinese characters were so different, the Japanese found it difficult to use these characters. Then, in the AD 800s, they added symbols that stood for sounds, much like the letters of an alphabet. This addition made reading and writing much easier.
*Handwriting was considered to reveal much about his or her education, social standing, and character. During the Middle Ages, the Japanese wrote poems, stories, and plays.
*Tanka was an unrhymed poem of five lines and captures natures beauty and the joys and sorrows of life. In addition, women living in Heian wrote the first great stories around 1000 B.C.
The tanka is Japan’s oldest form of poetry.*
Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji, the story of a Japanese prince.

10. Murasaki Shikibu
Murasaki Shikibu was a great novelist and poet of the Japanese Heian period. She was one of the firs modern novelists. Murasaki became famous from writing The Tale of Genji, but her work also included a diary and over 120 poems. Murasaki was born into the Fujiwara clan, a noble family but not a rich family. Her father was a scholar and a governor. IN fact the name Shikibu refers to her father’s position at court. Muraski’s mother and older sister died shen she was a child. Traditionally, children were raised by the mother and her family, but Murasaki’s father decided to raise his daughter himself. He broke another custom by educating his daughter in Chinese language and lierature, subject reserved for boys.
Murasaki married and had a daughter, byt her husband died after only a few years of marriage. Aroung that time, Murasaki began writing The Tale of Gengi and working as an attendant to Empress Akiko. She based the novel on life at the court which she knew about through her father’s job and her own. The last reference to her is in 1014, but many scholors believed she lived for about a decade after that.
Much about Murasaki’s life – and life at the emperor’s palace – is revealed in her diary. This excerpt describes the preparations for a celebration honoring the birth of a new prince.
“Even the sight of the lowest menials (servants), chattering to each other as they walked round lighting the fire baskets under the trees by the lake and arranging the food in the garden, seemed to add the sense of occasion. Torchbearers stood everywhere at attention and the scene was as bright as day.
The first picture is of Murisaki Shikibu.
The second picture is a scene from tale of Gengi.

11. Japanese Religion & Culture
Noh plays taught Buddhist ideas and were performed on a bare stage by actors in robes and masks.
About 200 years later, Japan’s writers turned out stirring tales about warriors in battle. The greatest collection was the Tale of Heike. It describes the fight between the Taira and Minamoto clan. The Japanese also created plays. The oldest type of play is called a Noh, and they were used to teach Buddhist ideas. Noh plays were performed on a bare stage, and the actors wore masks and elaborate robes. They danced, gestured, and chanted poetry to the music of drums and flutes.
Noh is a classical Japanese performance form which combines elements of dance, drama, music and poetry into one highly aesthetic stage art. Largely based in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, it is performed throughout the country by professional artists, mainly men, who have passed down the art among family members for numerous generations. There is also a wide following of both male and female amateurs who practice and perform its chant, dance, and instruments.

13. Japanese Religion & Culture
Sum It Up
How are martial arts and meditation connected to Zen Buddhism’s principle of self-control?
Both martial arts and meditation teach self-control, leading to inner peace.

14. Economy and Society
*Very few people benefited from Japan’s wealth under the shoguns.*
Most people in Japan remained poor.
Japanese farmers worked hard to grow rice, wheat, millet, and barley.
Under the shoguns, Japan not only developed its arts but also produced more goods and grew richer; however, *
*This group included the emperor, the nobles at his court, and leading military officials. A small but growing class of merchants and traders also began to prosper. Most Japanese were farmers who remained poor.
Millet - cereal grass, Setaria italica, extensively cultivated in the East and in southern Europe for its small seed, or grain, used as food for humans and fowls, but in the U.S. grown chiefly for fodder. 2. any of various related or similar grasses cultivated as grain plants or forage plants. 3. the grain of any of these grasses.

15. Economy and Society
In the 1100s, advances in irrigation and crops allowed them to grow more food and their lives improved.
Artisans made weapons, armor, and tools for merchants to sell.
As trade increased, artisans began making pottery, paper, textiles, and lacquered items.
in feudal Japan, any of the mercantile or craft guilds that flourished about 1100–1590. They did not become fully organized until the Muromachi period (1338–1573), when they began to monopolize the production, transport, and sale of merchandise. In exchange for certain fees, the za enjoyed official recognition and exemptions from tolls, transit duties, and market taxes. Many wholesale merchants (toimaru) appeared who, as contractors, stored, transported, and sold goods. Further, it became common for many merchants and artisans to form guilds, known as za, organized under the temples, shrines, or civil aristocrats, from whom they gained special monopoly privileges and exemptions from customs duties.

16. Economy and Society
Kyoto, the capital of Japan, was a major center of production and trade.
Many groups of artisans and merchants were located there and formed guilds, medieval business groups formed by craftspeople and merchants to protect profits.*
*Guilds were formed to protect and increase their profits. The members of these guilds on a wealthy daimyo to protect them from rivals on a wealthy daimyo to protect them from rival artisans. They sold the daimyo goods that he could not get from his country estates.
*Japan’s wealth also came from increased trade with Korea, China, and Southeast Asia. Japanese merchants exchanged lacquered goods, sword blades, and copper for silk, dyes, pepper, books, and porcelain.

17. Economy and Society
Japanese extended families included grandparents, parents, and children, with a man heading the family.
Women were expected to obey their father, their husband, and their sons.*
*In wealthy families, parents arranged the marriages of their children to increase the family’s wealth.

18. In early Japan, about the time of Prince Shotoku, wealthy women enjoyed a high position in society. There were several women rulers, and women could own property.

19. Economy and Society
During the time of Shotoku, wealthy women could be rulers and own property, but women lost these freedoms after the samurai and daimyo took control.*
Despite their lack of freedom, some women made important contributions to Japanese culture.
*In farming families, women had a greater say in whom they married. However, they worked long hours in the fields planting or harvesting rice. In addition, they cooked, spun and wove cloth, and cared for their children. In the towns, the wives of artisans helped with family businesses and ran their homes. The wives of merchants were possibly the best off.
Marriages were arranged by parents, but in farming families women had more control over whom they married.

20. Economy and Society Sum It Up
Which groups in Japan benefited from the country’s wealth?
Nobles, merchants, and artisans benefited from Japan’s wealth.

21. Life in Medieval Japan
Section Wrap Up
How did religion shape Japan’s culture?
Sects of Buddhism (Pure Land and Zen) and Shinto impacted Japan’s art, architecture, novels, and plays.

22. Life in Medieval Japan
Section Wrap Up
What was life like for people in medieval Japan?
Nobles, merchants, and artisans grew wealthy. Most Japanese were farmers who remained poor. Women remained restricted in many areas of life.

23. Life in Medieval Japan
What was life like for a Japanese farming woman?
Wives of farmers worked long, hard hours in the fields. They also had to cook, spin and weave cloth, and care for their children.

24. Life in Medieval Japan
How did the Shinto and Buddhist religions meet different needs in Japan?
Shinto: concerned with daily life;
Buddhism: prepared people for the life to come.

25. Life in Medieval Japan
What were Noh plays, and how were they performed?
Japan’s oldest form of play; performed on a simple, bare stage by actors who wore masks and danced, gestured, and chanted poetry to music.

26. Life in Medieval Japan
Describe How did guilds benefit artisans and daimyos?
Guilds offered protection from rival artisans, and sold daimyo goods they could not get themselves.

27. Life in Medieval Japan
Analyze Why do you think women lost some of their freedoms when Japan became a warrior society?
Answers will vary.

28. Life in Medieval Japan
Descriptive Writing Write a brief article for a travel magazine describing the architecture of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan during the Middle Ages
Articles should note that Shinto shrines were Japanese in style, while Buddhist temples were built in a Chinese style.