History of Japan

Japan Map

The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. The first known written reference to Japan is in the brief information given in Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts, in the 1st century CE. However, there is evidence that suggests people were living on the islands of Japan since the upper Paleolithic period. Following the last ice-age, around 12,000 BCE, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human development. The earliest-known pottery belongs to the Jōmon period.

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1 Japanese prehistory

    1.1 Paleolithic Age (35.000 - 14.000 BC)

2 Ancient Japan

    2.1 Jōmon period (14.000 - 300 BC)

    2.2 Yayoi period (300 BC - 250 AD)

    2.3 Kofun period (250 - 538)

3 Classical Japan

    3.1 Asuka period (538 - 710)

    3.2 Nara period (710 - 794)

    3.3 Heian period (794 - 1185)

4 Feudal Japan (1185–1868)

    4.1 Kamakura period (1185 - 1333)

    4.2 Kemmu Restoration (1333 - 1336)

    4.3 Muromachi period / Ashikaga (1336 - 1573)

          4.3.1 Nanboku-chō period (1336 - 1392)

          4.3.2 Sengoku period (1467 - 1573)

    4.5 Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568 - 1603)

5 Edo period / Tokugawa(1603–1868)

    5.1 Seclusion

    5.2 End of seclusion

6 Meiji period (1868 - 1912)

    6.1 Meiji Restoration

    6.2 Wars with China and Russia

OSAKA CASTLE

    6.3 Anglo-Japanese Alliance

7 Taishō period (1912 - 1926)

    7.1 World War I 

    

8 Shōwa period (1926–1989)

    8.1 Shōwa financial crisis
    8.2 Japanese militarism
    8.3 Occupation of Japan
    8.4 Post-occupation Japan

9 Heisei period (1989 – present)
    9.1 Lost Decade

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Nanboku-chō period

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The Nanboku-chō period (南北朝時代 Nanbokuchō jidai, "South and North courts period", also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period), spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Muromachi bakufu of Japan's history.

During this period, there existed a Northern Imperial Court, established by Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto, and a Southern Imperial Court, established by Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino.

Ideologically, the two courts fought for fifty years, with the South giving up to the North in 1392. However, in reality the Northern line was under the power of the Ashikaga shoguns and had little real independence.

Since the 19th century the Emperors of the Southern Imperial Court have been considered the legitimate Emperors of Japan. Other contributing factors were the Southern Court's control of the Japanese imperial regalia, and Kitabatake Chikafusa's work Jinnō Shōtōki, which legitimized the South's imperial court despite their defeat.

The consequences of events in this period continue to be influential in modern Japan's conventional view of the Tennō Seika (Emperor system). Under the influence of State Shinto, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911 established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the Southern Court. After World War II, a series of pretenders, starting with Kumazawa Hiromichi, claimed descent from the Southern Court and challenged the legitimacy of the modern imperial line which is descended from the Northern Court.

The destruction of the Kamakura shogunate of 1333 and the failure of the Kemmu Restoration in 1336 opened up a legitimacy crisis for the new shogunate. Furthermore, institutional changes in the estate system (the shōen) that formed the bedrock of the income of nobles and warriors alike decisively altered the status of the various social groups. What emerged out of the exigencies of the Nanboku-chō (Southern and Northern Court) War was the Muromachi regime, which broadened the economic base of the warriors while undercutting the noble proprietors, a trend that had started already with the Kamakura bakufu.