HUMA 1400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Agrarian System, Military Elite, Katakana
Document Summary
Studying china and japan: frequent mistakes, realities, japan is an offshoot of chinese culture , we can understand japan exclusively in terms of its indigenous culture , japan is very different than china. Kanji; hiragana & katakana: china influenced all other east asian countries and few in south east asia (vietnam the most) Background to the tokugawa period: 1192 minamoto no yoritomo, est. power base in karmakura, became 1st shogun, thereafter emperors would not hold real power, ashikaga period, 1338-1573. Warring states (sengoku) period : samurai, those who serve in close attendance to nobility, bushi, daimyo, shogun- sei taishogun. The three unifiers : oda nobunaga, toyototomi hideyoshi, tokugawa leyasu. Sen no rikyu: buddhist monk, loyal retainer of oda nobunaga and toyototomi hideyoshi. Boil water, brew tea, drink tea. : embrace the essence of japanese sense of aesthetics, simplicity, being in the present/impermanence, all participants equal, wabi, wabizumai; the life of wabi , a life of solitude and simplicity.