Japananese Feudalism

Japanese Feudalism

Japanese Feudalism is the height of Japans power, the heart of its culture, and marks the end of it isolationist views. When this period came over Japan, it carved out and molded most of japans history and culture . When it ended, much of Japan was changed, but it still retains many of the things it had gained during Feudalism.

The "feudal" period of Japanese history, dominated by the powerful regional families (daimyo) and the military rule of warlords (shogun), stretched from the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries. The Emperor remained but was mostly kept to a figurehead ruling position. This time is usually divided into periods following the reigning family of the shogun:

The Kamakura period 1185 to 1333, is a period that marks the governance of the Kamakura Shogunate and the transition to the Japanese "medieval" era, a nearly 700-year period in which the emperor ,the court, and the traditional central government were left intact but were largely relegated to ceremonial functions. Civil, military and judicial matters were controlled by the bushi class, the most powerful of whom was the de facto national ruler, the shogun. This period in Japan differed from the old shÐ"Ò'en system in its pervasive military emphasis.

In 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo defeated the rival Taira clan. And in 1192, Yoritomo was appointed Seii Tai-Shogun by the emperor, and has established a base of power in Kamakura. Yoritomo ruled as the first in a line of Kamakura shoguns. However, after Yoritomo's death, another warrior clan, the HÐ"Ò'jÐ"Ò', came to rule as regents for the shoguns.

Japanese samurai boarding Mongol ships in 1281.

A traumatic event of the period was the Mongol invasions of Japan between 1272 and 1281, in which massive Mongol forces with superior naval technology and weaponry attempted a full-scale invasion of the Japanese islands. A famous typhoon referred to as kamikaze, translating as divine wind in Japanese, is credited with devastating the second Mongol invasion forces who invaded in the spring of 1281, although some scholars assert that the defensive measures the Japanese built on the island of KyÐ"»shÐ"» may have been adequate to repel the invaders. Although the Japanese were successful in stopping the Mongols, the invasion attempt had devastating domestic repercussions, leading to the extinction of the Kamakura shogunate.

The Kamakura period ended in 1333 with the destruction of the shogunate and the short reestablishment of imperial rule (the