Episode 24 Japan and Samurai Culture

1215: Years That Changed History

Dr Dorsey Armstrong (2019)

Film Review

In this lecture, Armstrong explores how the Mongol capture of Beijing resulted in major political changes in Japan.

Following the Mongol takeover of the Jurchin Jin empire, many Buddhist monks headed east for Korea and Japan. Owing to China’s major influence over Korean and Japanese culture, Buddhism first arrived in Japan from Korea in the 6th century.

During the 11th century, Japan was essentially a feudal society, with the emperor endowing samurai (knights) with land in return for military service. In 1185, the first shogun (ie military ruler) came to power.* Although the emperor also continued to rule, he was little more than a figurehead.

By 1215 the samurai, who supported the shogun’s rise to power experienced a considerable increase in status, surpassing the traditional status of the emperor’s civil servants. The rise of the shogunate and the samurai was accompanied by advances in military technology, the development of a land-based economy, a gradual replacement of traditional Shintoism** with Buddhism and a decline in the status of women.

This period also saw the evolution of multiple Buddhist sects in Japan. All were in continual conflict with one another:

• Sohei Buddhism – which allowed warriors to become Buddhists
• Zen Buddhism – which endeavored to achieve serenity through meditation
• Pure Land Buddhism – which promoted the belief that salvation was based on belief in a celestial Buddha figured
• Yechuwin Buddhism – which taught enlightenment was achieved by studying a text known as the Lotus Sutra.

In 1274, Genghis Khan’s grandson Kubla Khan tried to invade Japan. At the hands of the samurai, he experienced his biggest losses ever.

The Kamakura period in which the samurai held the balance of power ended in civil war in 1333. Defeat by the emperor’s army lead 870 samurai to commit suicide.

The Japanese nobility continued to engage samurai as private mercenaries until 1870, when modern military technology made them obsolete.

*In 1185, the samurai victory in the Gempei war led the emperor to appoint them to four-year terms as magistrates. Over time, powerful samurai ceased to relinquish the role after four years and claimed it as a hereditary right.

**Shintoism was an animist religion involving multiple gods and spirits linked to natural forces, such as mountains, forests, the sea, fertility, etc. and ancestor worship.