Japan-Not just noodles and Anime Japan, the land of the rising sun. Current day Japan is known for its weird cultures, ramen noodles and anime.But is that all that Japan is about? I'm going to delve into Ancient Japan and what makes Japan what it really is. Not just how they came to be but also about their religions, their wars, ancient artwork and how they truly got their culture and laws. When I talk about religion the first ones that come to mind are Christianity, islam and Hinduism. But not a single one of these religions are the main ones in Japan. Japan’s main religions are Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto originated in Japan during the 8th century but there are documents saying that it happened as early as the 6th century.Shinto is an ethnic religion that attempts to connect present day Japan to the ancient Japan. Shinto is about the Kami or the spirit gods.Shinto is the largest religion in Japan with over 80% of people in Japan practice is but a very small percentage of the population call themselves Shintoians because Shinto has very different meanings to everyone.Shinto is really only practiced within Japan and in no other contents primarily.Buddhism on the other hand invaded into Japan during the Kofun Period(250-710 ce) around 552 ce is when It was Brought into Japan from Korea. At the time Buddhism was just a small religion that some people believed in and it really didn't have any effect on Japanese culture.It wasn't until the Nara period(710-794 ce) that Buddhism gained solid Acceptance and started to become a problem for the emperor/empresses.It wasn't that Buddhism was a bad religion just people were split to either pro or anti Buddhism, the people to split because Shinto and Buddhism are so different, Shinto is all about people and things becoming Kami or gods and having an afterlife while Buddhism was all about reincarnation . It wasn't until the reign of Empress Suiko and her regent prince Shotoku that Buddhism became a state religion. They encouraged others to express the religion. The Emperor Shomu felt that buddhism would bring on peace and stability in Japan so he built a temple for the Vairocana[3] the sun buddha and Amaterasu[4] the sun goddess from the Shinto religion. He thought by making a temple for the two that everyone would go there and see the similarities and eventually pray for both of the gods. The biggest thing that the Nara emperors had against was the sutra of golden light, whom was the truth and law not only of earth but the whole universe. But eventually these laws that Sutra had ended up influencing the laws they have to this day. When you think about japanese artwork you usually think of animated people or bonsi trees as well as dragons, or their pottery. Well their artwork is basically those things except that the people were drawn more simplistically. But during the edo period there was a very weird type of artwork that came up called he-gassen. It was a japanese art scroll that was about He-gassen which roughly means Fart Wars[1]. the artwork depicted in these scrolls showed people fighting one another with their farts. Some speculate that the He-gassen scroll was depicting political and social changes in Japan in the Edo Period. This art was by far the weirdest up until the 20th century. But we don't need to get into that.But during the Jomon period (4500 bce-250 bce) there was a very different style of art. It wasn't drawings per say but it was sculptures and pottery. The period was named after the art work. Jomon roughly means rope pattern, it was called this because almost all of the work done had a rope pattern on it[2]. The pottery and sculptures are said to be some of the oldest in the world. Japanese artwork has gone through a lot of changes through the times but the most popular ones are from 1500 ce and newer. That's when their art became very detailed but also stayed partially simplistic. Most of the newer paintings are showing landscapes or buildings, it's not so much about people. That's what the sculptures are for. These sculptures would show important people like the emperors.Some of these sculptures would be made of gold. Some of the statues are still here today. There is always something that's prominent in all civilizations; war. There has always been war throughout the continents and Japan is no different. All places may have war but it doesn't mean that their tactics and warfare is the same. Early Japan was very fond of using bows and Horses in their wars. This is shown in the tombs of early chieftains of this time. Contrary to belief the samurai didn't always use Katanas, they actually were highly skilled in bows and horses. The samurai[5] had wooden poison tipped arrows which were worn on a warriors right side so that they could quickly release an arrow mid gallop. But samurai’s using swords isn't entirely wrong because they used them but only in close quarters. Many spears were also used by them, there was a spear called the Naginata[6] which was a curved blade that was on the end of a pole that was several feet long. This spear was called a woman's spear because samurai girls were taught to use this spear at a very young age. They also had a weapon that looked a lot like a garden rake to grab onto enemy helmets or clothing to pull them off of horses or anything they rode. The common Samurai wore lightweight armor made of lamellae pieces that were laced together using colorful cords. They wore this lightweight armor to reduce stress on the horse as well as the rider. It also gave them more movement and made them move faster than conventional heavy armor. Originally their war was between clans. These clan wars lasted until 12th century AD. Near the ending of the Jomon period villages and towns created motes and wooden fences around themselves because of all of the war that was happening between them, It was found that around the Yayoi period they became skilled in creating bronze tools and weapons. Near the end of this period it is thought that they had Iron tools aswell but it wasn't used for war at all, within this period it is speculated that a partial genocide of the Japan aboriginal people occurred.During the 13th century bc the Mongols who controlled China attempted to invade Japan not once but twice which marked the most important military event of the Kamakura period. In the end the Mongols fled from Japan because of losing their ships to typhoons not once but twice! Talk about Karma. Everyone has a role model or someone or something they look up to. For some people it's their god that they look up to. For some bodybuilders they look up to Arnold. For some presidents(The Orange one) they look up to bad former leaders, like Adolf for instance. But we won't get into that. Japan's big brother of sorts is China the prince Shotoku (574-622 ce) Was the person that wanted to bring China into Japan the most. For the most part Japan was heavily shaped from China from this point of their history and on. This prince sent people to observe China so he could learn about them. He went so far to learn their language and how to read and write their letters. Shortly after his reign in 646 ce many reforms called the taika reforms were issued. These reforms would put the Chinese influence into Japan. Some of the items these reforms include: Centralised government under an emperor. And officials appointed by the emperor All land was the State's land and was going to be redistributed following a census Centralizing power so clans would lose their power Taxes and laws directly from China currency These were all implemented gradually into Japan over half a century with many mixed feelings about this. Some loved it and some really hated it. In 702 ce these reforms became the law in the Taiho code. But laws weren't the only thing that was added into Japan from China. Their first two writing methods and alphabets were taken directly from China, which were Kanji and Hiragana. China wasn't the only one that molded Japan either, Westerners came into Japan before it was spelt Japan, Originally it was called Jih-pen. The word Jih-pen means Sunrise islands, In Japanese originally it was pronounced Nippon but since the heavy Chinese influence it is now Nihon. Some japanese people use Nihon to describe Japan to this day although that isn't how it's pronounced in their dictionary. So now that you know about Japanese art, religion war and, how the outside influences changed them. Do you still think that Japan is still just noodles and Anime or is it more of a hub of insane culture and beliefs? I really feel that if people actually delved into the history of Japan they wouldn't give it such a hard time because they would know all about the preciousness of the Japanese religions and Art not to mention their wars and betrayal of their big brother of sorts.
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