Interwar period

Louise Young in her meticulous and groundbreaking monograph, Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism, calls for a turn to the study of ordinary people’s agency in building Japanese imperialism and empire. She accurately points out the problem at the root of previous scholarships that concentrate on the state as the sole actor in the history of Japan’s expansionism. Certainly, to drag the ordinary into the swirl of history and the responsibility of its cause is not to

The top to bottom Japanese revolution known as the Meiji Restoration occurred in 1868 and it completely changed the system of government of Japan, which had been under the strict control of the absolute rule of the Tokugawa Shoguns that kept Japan in a feudal state. The Tokugawa government also kept Japan, for the most part, isolated from the rest of the world believing that they had no need for Western ideas. All that changed under the fiction of the “restoration” of the imperial government under

There was once a time in Japan called the Edo period - this was a period where Japan was ruled under the Tokugawa Shogunates, a feudal military government. Japan had a stable population, and a popular enjoyment of art and culture. However, they had an uncompromising policy prohibiting any foreign contact, ultimately making it completely isolated from the western world. There was also a strict social order, where everyone knew their status. Emperors and high nobilities had invulnerable prestige, but

Tokugawa Ieyasu, the third of Japan’s unifiers, was able to create a stable regime that brought peace to Japan for 250 years. Under his system, “the centralization of feudal state and society went much further than it had in the earlier periods.” (Sources, 121). During this time, Shogun and roughly 260 feudal lords, called daimyos, ruled Japan. According to law, the positions of daimyos were inherited, which meant that a daimyo would be succeeded by one of his sons and this succession would be approved

the last few months but the fact is that Ebola has been around for years. It’s just that people didn’t know or care about it as it was in Africa. Now that is has come to the United States of America it has become a worldwide issue. The incubation period, which is also known as the amount of

Introduction The Tale of the Heike is written account of the power tussle between the clans in Japan, which were the Taira and Minamoto clans. This story documents the struggle for leadership and control between both clans at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War, taking place from 1180 to 1185. Authorship is unknown but it is still regarded as one of the celebrated classics in the Japanese literature. This story’s focus is on Heike (Taira) Clan in medieval Japan. It shows his rise

The Edo era was the final period of traditional Japanese governing. This period, governed by Tokugawa shoguns, propelled art and common folk in Japan into a new era. Ukiyo-e, a genre of woodblock prints, is a japanese art form that came to be during this period. The invention of this kind of woodblock print has it’s own long and beautiful history in shaping the Japanese art and culture, but it also has had a massive impact on western modern art history. As the described the genre of ukiyo-e, we

During the Heian period the Heian court had the highest power in Japan. This was a period known for its art, literature, and culture. During the Heian period there was a lot of change going on and the society cared less about foreign affairs and focused domestically. The religion was changing from an elite Buddhism into religion for the people. Warriors started to become important political figures during this time. Samurais were rising and gaining power and the court recognized them and gave them

The Tokugawa shogunate was a transition period in which Japan began to modernize and began trading due to the arrival of Commodore Perry. Society during this period was based on strict class hierarchy with tight restrictions for social mobility. With urbanization, came an increase reliance on markets and merchants for funds which increased the need and want for trade with the Western nations. The images displayed in chapter two show the progress of events and how the Western nation influenced Japan

The ‘kishu ryūritan’, or the ‘exile of the young noble’, is a recurring motif in Classical Japanese literature where ‘a young god or aristocrat undergoes a severe trial in a distant and hostile land’ as punishment for a previous transgression (Haruo, 1987). With both the protagonists of the Tale of Genji (Hikaru Genji) and the Tales of Ise (the anonymous ‘man’) embarking on self-imposed exiles, this essay will examine the similarities and differences between the experiences of the two characters