HISTORY
Recent discoveries posit the mergence of the hunting
and gathering  society known as Jomon around 14,500
BC. Jomon pottery is among the world's oldest and
includes vessels and figurines, particularly of women.
Mounds of shells and other evidence indicate that
the diet included fish, shellfish, deer, wild pigs,
and wild plants and seeds. In the Kanto Plain (near
Tokyo), the Jomon culture in its later stages included
village-like groupings.
Rice agriculture and bronze, iron, and other crafts
are believed to have reached Kyushu island via Korea
during the Yayoi period. The Yayoi people spread from
Kyushu to Honshu and Shikoku over time, pushing the
earlier inhabitants north. Chinese histories record
a visit by an envoy of Himiko, queen of Yamatai, to
the Chinese kingdom of Wei in 239, but Yamatai's location
is still open to debate. Aristocratic orders emerged,
including that of the emperor (a line unbroken to
the present day), said to be descended from the sun
goddess Amaterasu. Figures of high rank were buried
in Kofun (tumuli), along with clay sculptures, armor,
mirrors, and jewelry.
By the late 6th century, tribes that had migrated
to fertile lands of Yamato were engaged in a power
struggle over the introduction of Buddhism. Prince
Shotoku, appointed regent by Empress Suiko in 593,
helped seal victory for the pro-Buddhist camp. The
temple Horyu-ji was completed in 607.
In
701, the Taiho code, a penal and administrative system
based on the Chinese model, was in place. The temples
of Nara, which became the capital in 710, epitomize
this Chinese influence and are some of the best intact
examples of their kind. With the completion of the
Man'yoshu, the earliest known Japanese poetry, in
759, the culture began to establish a clear voice
of its own.
Heian Period
The powerful Fujiwara family and Emperor Kammu built a new capital, Heian-kyo, now Kyoto , in 794. The new system, also based on Chinese models, held that the land and people were ultimately the property of the emperor. Tax-exempt status was granted to Buddhist institutions, large landholders, and settlers who would expand the state's frontiers. Meanwhile, the Fujiwara clan gained influence by acting as regents and intermarriage with the imperial family. A pattern emerged in which emperors would abdicate, name a younger successor, enter a monastery, then exercise power from behind the scenes.
Kamakara Shogunate Deliberately basing his government far from the imperial court in the village of Kamakura , Minamoto no Yoritomo carefully crafted a system that benefited his bushi (warrior) peers and brought 150 years of relative peace and stability. Yoritomo's direct heirs were shoguns only in name, however, as they were dominated by hereditary regents from the military Hojo family of Kamakura . The Hojo assumed the prerogatives of power while granting the imperial institution and nobility the privilege of signing off on policy.
Muromachi Shogunate The Muromachi period, named for the Kyoto district where the Ashikagas built their palace, was a time of craven ambition that unleashed every class in society to vie for advantage. Warfare, once the exclusive business of samurai, now involved armies of footsoldiers (ashigaru) recruited from the peasantry, who could hope for promotion based on success in the battlefields.
Modern Japan Perhaps nowhere else does the modern world of high technology and constant change show itself more poignantly than in Japan . For some people, modern Japan is an anathema, a kitsch distillation of the Western world that destroys traditional culture. Others embrace the nation's fascination with invention and image, and praise it for often leading the West. Few urban buildings are more than 25 years old, and consumer trends may change in a matter of weeks in this economic powerhouse. In some ways, though, the liking for change is a manifestation of ancient religious concepts that emphasizes the importance of impermanence and renewal.
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