JAPAN

Here is a summary of the Republican debate two months before Iowa votes.  Time magazine feels Nikki Haley won.

Our entire five week journey will be spent only in Japan.  I really don't know much about the history of Japan, so learn with me:

• 
  Human life in Japan began nearly 40,000 years ago during the Stone Age.  Tools first came from Northern China about 34,000 years ago, then advancements were introduced from Siberia 20,000 years ago.
• The Jomon period began in 14,000 BC and continued to 300 BC.
• By the start of 300 BC, rice farming and the metallurgy of iron and bronze arose during the Yayoi period.
• 
  The documented history goes back to 250 AD, the Kofu period, when Shintoism was introduced and the Imperial House began to rise.  A Torii Gate sits at the entrance of a Shinto temple.  If in the water, then adjacently on land.

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  From 538 during the Asuka period, when there was a big leap in political, social and artistic aspects of the society.  Buddhism was brought to the country from Korea, through China and originally India.
• Japan began using era names from 645 during the reign of Emperor Kotoku, and very first one was called Taika.  But the use of era, period and empire is confusing, for eras seem to have later replaced periods with the Meiji Era in 1968, and all three can be applied depending on the author.  Part of this confusion has to do with use of nengō, when changes sometimes came about by a decision of a court official,
• 
  The Nara period started in 710 when the elite adopted much of Chinese culture.
• The Heian period from 794 to 1185 saw the peak of Taoism, Buddhism, poetry, literature and art.
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  Beginning in 1185 with the Kamakura period, Minamoto Yoritomo became the first shogun in 1192 out of Kamakura.  
• He established a system of military government that took the country up to Meiji period.
• This began the series of hereditary military leaders appointed by the emperor, although this was just form, as the the shogun held the real power.

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  The shogun had under his domain daimyo, or wealthy landowners, who employed the samurai warrior class.
• The dominant major shogunates--Kamakura, Ashikaga and Tokugawa--ended in 1868.
• The term is still loosely used for retired prime ministers.

• 
  The Modern period actually began in 1603 through the Tokugawa shogunate, led first by Ieyasu, who was shogun only for two years.
• In 1868 during the Boshin War, the Tokugawa shogunate fell and was replaced by the Meiji Empire, led by Emperor Meiji.
• Japan switched from an isolated society under feudal rule into a modern one,
• Ended in 1912 when Meiji died.

• 
  Emperor Taisho took over and ruled for 14 years during the Taisho democracy, when political parties ascended.
• Taisho died of a heart attack in 1926, bringing in the Showa period, when Japan shifted into ultra-nationalism, fascism and totalitarianism.  Emperor Showa reigned during the Great Depression, sparking advances by the country into China and Mongolia, leading into World War II.

• 
  After losing WWII, Japan was occupied by Allied powers for seven years, and converted to a democratic, constitutional monarchy.
• Seven Japanese leaders were sentenced to death and were executed.
• Emperor was spared for vague reasons.

• 
  Akihito was emperor during the Heisei period from 1989 to 2019.
• The Reiwa period then began when Akihito abdicated, and eldest son Naruhito ascended to the throne as the 126th Emperor of Japan.

About foreign relations:

• There is of course a long history of trade and cultural relationships with China and Korea, beginning in the third century BC, for Korea served as the exchange point of social input from China, heavily influencing what is today Japan in architecture, cuisine, religion and philosophy.  

• 
  Through much of history there were various wars and alliances between Korea and Japan, with the Japanese generally occupying Korea for periods, especially from 1882.  
• Large scale trade with China, however, only began in the 1860s, until wars and confrontations between 1880 and 1945 again restricted relationships.
• 

  The first European affiliation occurred in 1543 when Portuguese explorers landed in the south, Tanegashima.  
• The contention between Japan and China allowed Portugal to become an intermediary. 
• Mercantilism was initiated in the port of Nagasaki.  
• 
  The Japanese were particularly interested in Portuguese guns. 
• Oda Nobunaga rose to power and nearly unified Japan because he extensively used the arquebus.
• In time the Japanese improved the technology, and their guns became superior to imports.
• Up until 1595 when Portugal banned the selling and buying of slaves from the Orient, there was considerable slave trade, particularly women for sexual purposes.

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  Formal trade relations with the Dutch began in 1609, for trade with Portugal and Spain was stopped, as they sometimes helped groups rebelling against the Tokugawa shogunate.  There is a lot of Dutch influence in the Nagasaki area.
• Japan trade with the U.S. began in 1854 after Commodore Matthew Perry's success in opening the country to foreigners.

Most people, like me, identify with Japan through samurai films.  They rose as a class in the 1300s until the 1870s.  There are two kinds of ratings, those who most influenced the history of the country, like Shoguns Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Taiko, or Prime Minister, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and true warriors:

• #1  Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645).  The following quote will bring back memories of Toshiro Mifune and other actors:
• While he never held his own lands or served a lord as a formal samurai, as a duelist, none can compare to Miyamoto Musashi (1584?-1645). 
• Brazen and reckless, Musashi won his first duel at the age of 12 or 13, accepting an open challenge from a traveling samurai whom he stunned with a sudden attack with a wooden pole, then beat to death on the ground.  

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  In 1612 he fought his most famous duel , which was against Sasaki Kojiro on the tiny island of Funajima, situated in the Kanmon Straits between Japan's main island and Kyushu. Musashi aggravated his opponent by intentionally arriving on the island nearly three hours late. In the course of a fierce but brief duel, he then struck him dead with a wooden sword he'd carved from an oar on his way to the island.  And yes, this was the 1956 Samurai III, Duel at Ganryu Island, where Musashi (Mifune) disposes of Kojiro (Koji Tsurata).
• After the Siege of Osaka, Musashi helped construct Akashi Castle in what's now Hyogo Prefecture, and also assisted in laying out the town of Himeji. He traveled again for a time, offering himself as a sword instructor or vassal to various major figures, including Tokugawa Ieyasu himself (who rejected him), until in 1633 he finally took up residence with the daimyo of Kumamoto Castle, by which time he dueled less and was interested in learning to paint. 
• In 1643 he retired to a cave in western Kumamoto, known as Reigando (霊巌洞), to write The Book of Five Rings. He completed the work in February 1645, then died in the cave around June 13 at the age of 62.
• Undefeated across at least 60 duels, he founded multiple schools of swordsmanship.
• #2 Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), #3 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and #4 Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582).  They all lived alongside each other in time and place.

There were female samurai.

•  There is a book, Samurai Women 1184-1877:  ranked #1 is Tomeo Gozen (1157-1247), known as onna-bugeisha, was true military general.
• A last stand was made by female warriors in 1868.
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  There is a rumor that there might have been a female samurai warrior in our family. During my roots search for Kenjiro, my father's father, I asked questions.

For Japan, I start with women samurai.  There is a vague family rumor that one grandmother of my father's father, Kenjiro Takahashi, might have been a female samurai.  Here is a two-part search I made on Hokkaido in 2009:  Part 1 and Part 2.  That led to another roots journey the following year, for it turned out that that Kenjiro's parents had left Akita, and he was born in Otaru.  In Akita I found the gravestone of a kin.  Would like to return someday for a more serious search.

In that above posting, I also included:

Screen Rant uses Rotten Tomatoes to select the top samurai movies, and, of course:

• 100%  Seven Samurai (1954), HBO Max
• 100%  Harakiri (1962), can purchase on Prime Video
• 100%  Sanjuro (1962), can purchase on Prime Video
• 100%  Samurai Rebellion (1967), Criterion Channel
• 100%  Lady Snowblood (1973), HBO Max
• 99%  The Twilight Samurai (2002)
• The list goes on.
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