J314 Historical Overview

1. Pre-history

Jomon ca. 10,000-300 BCE - Neolithic, Hunting-Gathering Society

Yayoi ca. 300 bc-300 CE - Agriculture - Wet Rice Ag. Introduced, Sedentary Villages

Kofun or Tomb Pd. 300-700 CE - Huge Burial Mounds of Regional Chieftans or Kings

start to dot the landscape;

--The Wei Dynasty Chronicles (魏志) (297 AD) from China mention the "People of Wa" (Japan) and a country called "Yamatai" which was ruled by a "Queen" Himiko over whom they constructed a huge burial bound after she died...Very suggestive!! See below:

“In the middle of the Lo-lang sea there are the Wa people. They are subdivided into more than a hundred ‘countries’[called communities in some translations]. Depending on the season they come and offer tribute”.

Thirty of these countries were known to have had direct contact with China. Historians equate these “countries” with chiefdoms.

The Chinese Wei Zhi  accounts in 297 A.D. asserted that Yamatai kingdom was the strongest of those countries. Yamatai country was victorious after years of warfare. Gishi no Wajinden noted decades of warfare had ensued until “the people agreed upon a woman for their ruler”, i.e. when Queen Himiko came to the throne. Towards the end of 2nd century, around 30 small chiefdoms had allied with each other to form a confederated kingdom or state known as “Yamatai country” (Yamatai koku) with Queen Himiko at the helm.

2. Recorded History: 3 Principal Strata

There are still 300-400 years not well accounted for but by the late 600s, a city state with a capital was clearly in place and by 700 we have the....

Classical Era 710-1160s = Aristocratic Bureaucracy

(Heian Era - capital located in first in Nara, then Kyoto)

Medieval Era 1160s-1600 - Feudal Fluidity

Samurai class rises, Kamakura, Ashikaga Eras

4.Early Modern Period 1600-1868 = Integral Bureaucracy (Tokugawa Era)

The Modern Era

5. Meiji 1868-1912

6. Taisho 1912-1926

7. Showa 1926-1989

8. Heisei 1989-Present