Year 8: Shogunate Japan

Samurai warriors emerged as an elite force in Japan's provinces during the early 10th century. Recruited by local chieftains, these fighting forces were maintained long enough to wage a specific war, after which the soldiers would return to their lands to till the soil. With Japan's emperor living in the ancient capital of Kyoto and unable to maintain control of the provinces, the samurai clans established themselves as viable political entities. By the late 12th century, samurai lords ruled both the provinces and central Japan. They maintained their influence until the mid-1870's when the samurai class was outlawed and their privileged status was dissolved.

General

• How Stuff Works: How Samurai Works
  Includes Training, Armor, Weapons, Bushido
   
• World History Encyclopedia: Samurai
  Scroll through for information on Weapons, Armour and Bushido
   
• The Samurai 
  From 'Oxford Big Ideas', Maggy Saldais and others, Oxford University Press, 2012.
   
• PRIMARY SOURCES: Bakadesuyo.com - Lessons from the Samurai

Training and Code of Behaviour (Bushido)

• Facts and Details: Samurai Training
  Scroll down to 'Samurai Training'
   
• SportsRec: Ancient Japanese Samurai training methods
   
• Japan: Memoirs of a secret empire
   
• Tampere: Childhood and samurai training
   
• History.com: Samurai and Bushido
   
• Invaluable.com: The History of the Bushido Code
   
• Britannica: Bushido - virtues, significance, history and facts 
   
• Thought.co: Bushido - The samurai code
   
• Art of Manliness: Bushido - 8 virtues of the samurai
   
• Tampere: Symbolism 

Weapons and Armour 

• How Stuff Works: How Samurai work 
   
• Facts and Details: Samurai Weapons
  Scroll right down to 'Samurai Weapons'
   
• History Hit: 6 weapons of the Japanese Samurai 
   
• War History Online: The Equipment of the Samurai – Fearsome Warriors Armed to the Teeth
   
• Facts and Details: Samurai Armour
  Scroll down to 'Samurai Armour'
   
• My Learning: A suit of armour to terrify the enemy 
   
• War History Online: The equipment of the samurai
   
• The Japanese Samurai: The armour of the Samurai
   
• History Hit: 6 weapons of the Japanese samurai
   
• Armour, Helmets and Shields in Medieval Japan
  From the book 'Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan', by William E. Deal, 2005, Infobase Publishing, New York 

Battle Tactics

• Legends and Chronicles: Samurai warriors
  Scroll down to 'Tactics in war'.
   
• Battle tactics in Medieval Japan 
  From 'Handbook to life in early and medieval Japan', by William E. Deal, 2005, Infobase Publishing, New York.
   
• Facts and Details: Samurai Warfare
   
• Legends and Chronicles: Samurai warrior and battle tactics
   
• The History of Fighting: The Japanese samurai at war
   
• Gunbai Ancient Japanese Warfare: Sengoku period warfare: army and battle formations
   
• Samurai in ancient Japan: Samurai battle tactics

• Jacaranda Online: Classical and Feudal Japan
  Scroll down to p. 60 or the heading '3.5 Ritual, Values and Beliefs'
   
• About Japan: Religion in Tokugawa Japan
   
• Japan Society: Religion in Tokugawa Japan 
   

• Japan Under the  Shoguns: Religion and Philosophy
  Click on 'Download the file'.

• AngelFire: Japanese Religion 

• Religion in Japan 
   
• Ancient Civilisations: Japanese Religion and Spirituality
   

• Japan-Guide: Religion in Japan 

• Study.com: Religion and Art  in Tokugawa Japan
   

• Taiken Japan: Shintoism - How it Influenced the Lives of the Japanese 

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Shinto (you will need a password off-campus)

• BBC: Shinto History

• BuddhaNet: Brief History of Japanese Buddhism

• Religion and Zen Buddhism in Medieval Japan

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Neo Confucianism and Japanese philosophy

• Onmark Productions: Confucius and Confucianism in Japanese art and culture

• Nippon.com: Japan’s Religious Ambivalence: The Shaping and Dismantling of a National Polity  

• eBook article from Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan 

  Please reference this as an ebook article (from the first book in the ebook box above).

If religion defined half of daily life in the Edo Period, art defined the other half. The defined power of warlords and their samurai created a social obligation to act as a patron of the arts. A strong economy also made many arts more affordable to the growing merchant class. A focus on discipline and perfection, in all aspects of life that defined courtly behavior, motivated artists. Wealthy samurai put lots of effort into the arts, which was reflected in their ornately designed armour. 

All in all, art thrived in the Edo Period. This was when the formal tea ceremony was standardized. Samurai armor reached new levels of exquisite craftsmanship. Poetry, and other intellectual arts, became among the most important parts of a child's education.

From https://study.com/academy/lesson/tokugawa-shogunate-religion-and-art.html

Consider the following: Literature; Theatre; The Arts (eg Painting, Calligraphy, Music, Sculpture, Porcelain, Pottery, Woodblock prints, Lacquerware), as well as other artistic endeavours such as the Tea Ceremony, Gardens (eg Flower arranging and Bonsai).

• Jacaranda Online: Classical and Feudal Japan
  Scroll down to p. 62 or the heading '3.6 Expressions of Culture'
   
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Japanese Art in the Tokugawa Period (you will need to login if off-campus)
   
• Edo: Art in Japan 1615-1868 

• Ancient Civilisations: Life During the Edo Period 

• University of Colorado: Medieval Japan - An Introductory Essay 

  Scroll right down to the section 'Literature and the Arts'

• Japanese Objects: Japanese Art: Everything You Might Not Know 

  Make sure you only include information from the medieval (or feudal) period.

• Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art of the Edo period (1615-1868)

• Japan Under the Shoguns 

  Look at the first 2 sections: Art and Architecture, and Poems and Play

• Khan Academy: A brief history of the arts in the Edo period
   
• U.S. Japan.org: Landscape Gardening in Edo
   
• Japan Guides: Garden Elements
   
• Kids Web: Explore Japan Culture

PRIMARY SOURCES

Tokyo National e-Museum