「History of Japan②」A great turning point

1,Nara and Heian period(A.D.710〜A.D.1190)

①The beginning of the Nara period

The “Nara period” is known as the era when Buddhism started to influence Japanese politics. Buddhism came to Japan years ago and was gradually accepted by people. The emperor at the time believed that if Buddhism was widely respected, he could prevent crises such as rebellions. But now, Buddhism became more powerful than an emperor.

One day, A monk tried to become an emperor. The emperor at the time was a woman and she really liked the monk. So she gave him a good position in the government and enjoyed a fancy life with him. More she played with the monk, the more he drank in the political power. And he thought he wanted to be the ruler.

What he did was he went to a place to receive a message which was written like "if he’d become the emperor, Japan would be more stable than ever!". After he got this fantastic message, he came back to the women emperor and told her what he received. 

But all he did was a lie. He cheated to become the emperor.

When someone pointed out his childish lie, the monk was defeated. He never enjoys the women anymore.

②The beginning of Heian period 

The next period of Nara is The “Heian period”. The emperor “Kanmu” tried to weaken the power of Buddhism. In the meanwhile, two Buddhists, Saicho and Kukai, returned from China and each of them started a new monk's life in Japan. Some monks went to their temple and started a very hard training. 

The emperor Kanmu took advantage of this. He let the many Buddhists focus on the hard trainings forever and didn’t let them join the politics. The monks trained in the mountains far from the capital. So the emperor didn't get bothered by monks anymore and took back the political power. 

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During this period, the Japanese imperial court didn’t control the whole of the county. They struggled to conquer the northern part called “Emishi” and the eastern part which would become “Kamakura” later. 

So the imperial court started to take these areas seriously. 

They formed a very large army and put “Shogun” on it. Shogun is the leader of the army. His main purpose was to conquer Emishi. But there was a really strong guy in there named “Aterui”, the great hero of Emishi. He defeated the enemy many many times. He's very strong and has charisma. So he was popular around him, even the enemy.

To defeat him, the imperial court replaced a new Shogun named “Tamuramaro Sakanoue”. He’s elite and talented in a sword fight, So people counted on him. He went to the hero and began to fight.

When Tamuramaro defeated the hero, he thought "this powerful guy deserved to live on". So he went back to the imperial court and desperately asked them to let him be alive. But they didn’t take his desire and the hero Aterui was killed. This is the end of Emishi.

After the Emishi war ended, something happened in the eastern part of Japan. Here, the rich people started to collect the lands and they put the warriors there. These warriors are called “Bushi” or “Samurai”. They protected the lands and followed the order of the boss. But the warriors became bossy rather than their boss and went against him using a samurai sword. 

While this happened, a person called “Masakadu Taira” began to have influence and started to expand its territory. Once he controlled the east of Japan, he called himself "The new emperor" and wanted to make a new world for Bushi. So, He planned to defeat the western world. But during the battle between the east and the west, he died. His wish didn’t come true.

③Fujiwara clan and Genji and Heike

After Masakado died, the “Fujiwara clan” started to take power in the imperial court. “Fujiwara no Michinaga”, a handsome guy planned to control politics using his daughters. The daughters were also very good looking like him and they got private tutors. One of the tutors was “Murasaki Shikibu”. She’s known as Michnaga's private lover.  She also created the literary work called “The tale of Genji”.  It’s a love story and the story line is famous for the love between her and Michinaga.

Now, well educated and good looking daughters went to the rulers and married. Some of them got a son and the baby boy would be the next ruler. Michinaga could get involved in politics as an uncle and he controlled from behind the scene.

This is how the Fujiwara clan holds power.   

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After the Fujiwara, the two powerful clans, ”Genji and Heike” came out. They fought each other for control of the country. At first, “Taira no Kiyomori”, the leader of Heike, took control and let the Heike’s world be prosperous. But he was defeated by the Genji clan in an important battle.

The period of Genji and Heike was a turning point when the bushi began to play a major role in politics. And from now on, the Genji clan becomes the ruler.

「A great turning point」Fin