Year 8: Medieval Europe and Japan: Medieval Japan

Minamoto no Yoritomo reigned 1192 - 1199 as the first Shogun (Kamakura Shogunate 1192 - 1333)

Fujiwara no Takanobu, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu are considered the three great unifiers of Medieval Japan after the long civil unrest. 

Oda Nobunaga

Daimyo (feudal lord), lived 1534 - 1598, first of 3 leaders credited with working towards unifying medieval Japan in the second half of the 16th century.

狩野宗秀 (Kanō Sōshū, 1551 - 1601), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Reigned 1582 - 1598, military leader and second of the great unifiers of Japan.

Kanō Mitsunobu (狩野 光信, 1565–1608), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Reigned 1603 - 1605, first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603 - 1867) 

Kanō Tan'yū, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Reading tip! For any given entry you find, you can change the Article Reading Level at the top of the entry. Use this feature to suit your level of understanding, interest or need for more or less detail on your topic. You may decide to start with Level 1 for each entry to gain an overview and then select another level if you need more detail. 

Searching tip! You will need to do more than one search to find enough information on your topic. For example, you might:

• Search for initially for the history of Japan and find a good overview
• Familiarise yourself with the main ideas and take note of keywords and ideas
• Perform extra searches on these keywords to find more specific or related information, for example, on Buddhism, tea ceremonies, armour and weaponry, or particular shogunate eras. 
• Follow the links in the entries of relevant items to find further information

This kind of strategy will help you build up a good list of resources to use and help you make connections between sub-topics and ideas. 

For nearly 700 years, Japan was ruled by a series of military leaders known as shoguns. The first half of this clip provides a chronological timeline of key events from the imperial Nara and Heian periods through to the three shogunates: Kamakura, Muromachi and Tokugawa. The second half looks at the way of life in shogunate Japan (social, cultural, political and economic). Social class hierarchy within this feudal system is explained, including the status and roles of Daimyos, Samurai and peasants. Examples of the strict edicts that impacted social class, religion and political conflict are given.

Himeji-jo - Himeji Castle - White Heron Castle

A UNESCO World Heritage listed castle, Himeji-jo is the finest surviving example of Japanese castle architecture. 

Buddhism

Shinto