War and Peace (EM) - Japan Flashcards
How can different cartographical representations of Japan convey different ideas (fish, sea horse etc.)
- Always destined by geography to exist as a single country
- Japan is trying to escape (swim) away from the rest of Asia
- Japan looks much more interconnected if map is rotated at 90 degrees. Sea of Japan looks more like a lake rathe than a sea separating Japan from the continent
What is the human history of Japan heavily intertwined with
The Korean peninsula
- Prehistoric migration
- Lasting impact of Korean artisans (4thC)
- Korea as both a conduit and exemplar of universal ideas (Confucianism and Buddhism) form around the 6thC
These entanglements were not always peaceful, war is also an important theme (Japan tried to attack Korea, and possibly China in the 16thC)
Give some historical entanglements between Korea and China
- War among competing states in the peninsula from 390-663
- Hideoyoshi invades Korea in the Imajin War
- Korea becomes a battleground for the forst sino-japanesse war and Russo-japanesse war
Why do some historians tend to foreground war and emphasis its significance in understanding relations between Japan and Korea
War is seen as an opportunity, peace may be taken for granted as the normal state of things
Historians focus on a sequence of events, a chain of causes and effects – and war tends to exemplify that particular view of events
Why is it a danger to only look at the relations of Korea and Japan through the lens of war
Peace has varied historical causes too, and understanding them allows us to understand war and history in general, from different perspectives
How could Japan be characterised in the period 1467-1638
An age of war
War could be considered as ‘the normal state of things’ in stark contrast to Choson Korea
- Decade long Onin War (1467-1477) inaugurated an even longer waring states period
- Hundreds of thousands killed in attempted invasions of Korea towards the nd of the 16thc (Imjin War)
Why is it erroneous to characterise much of Japan’s warfare as civil wars
Civil war puts emphasis on pre-existing unity that breaks down into chaos
That’s one reason why invading a country was justified if it prevented civil war from breaking out at home (international law in Early Modern Europe)
But emphasising pre-existing unity too much projects the modern nation-state backwards in time
Earlier periods of Japanese history – no unity that existed in the 4 islands
How was Japanese language and literature shaped
Exchange of letters and writing of literature – associated with women.
Japanese made use of Chinese characters to represent speech
Among the women at court, a particualr style developed – and this became the origins of one of the later ways Japanese written language was written
How did the Onin war shape Japanese culture (1467-77)
Led to the cultural diffusion from an early seat of political power and exchange (Kyto).
Lots of blending and mixing of cultures during the civil war, as well as waves of external cultural influences entering Japan
Once Japan stabilises and peace settles, scholars - 18th 19th C efforts to recover the ‘pristine origins’ of that culture (before cultural influences from other countries)
What was the state of Japan in the 16thC
Divided up into individual states/domains – ruled by Daimyo lords and Samurai retainers
Over the course of the following century, fighting takes place between different domains, shifting military alliecnes between domains.
Lots of popular representations of this period today, get the impression that each domain is similar to each other (mini Japan’s) – Akira Kurosawa Ran
Todays politics – trend to refer back to the war in states period when debating factional politics with different political parties
Give 3 Japanese unifiers
- Oda Nununagag (1580)
- Totomi Hideyoshi (1585)
- Tokugawa Leyasu (1603)
Who was Oda Nununagag (1580)
Cracked down on armed Buddhist communities.
Very concerned with trying to suppress popular Buddhist ideas, in order to establish unity throughout Japan.
(Failure)
Who was Totomi Hideyoshi (1585)
Disarms commoners and tries to invade Korea.
Tries to take away concentrated power from the Dainymo, rallying everyone to a single cause (invasion aborad).
Failed invasion of China (assumes that China was at the centre of the world’s civilisational order)
(Failure)
Who was Tokugawa Leyasu (1603)
Arguments for unity and peace involved popular religious beliefs (Tomb of Tokugawa – Synectic religion, founder of authority)
Subjected Daimyo forced to travel to that family’s seat of power every other year (creating a display of supremacy of the Tokuwaga dynasty), and political thought that provides another rationale as to why one should support Tokuwage household
Tokuwage redraws the map of Japan, more centralised and helps to secure peace for over two centuries
(Success)
