DATES PERIODS EVENTS

B.C.E.
4000		 JOMON CULTURE Prehistoric culture characterized by hand-made pottery with rope pattern design.
500 YAYOI CULTURE
(ca. 300)		 More advanced agricultural society, using metals and wheel-turned pottery.
C.E.
200 		Tomb Period
(ca. 900)		 Great earthen grave mounds and their funery objects, such as clay haniwa--terra-cotta figurines of people and animals, models of buildings and boats--attest to emergence of powerful clan rulers. Among these was the Yamato clan, whose rulers began the imperial dynasty that has continued to the present.

400

600

Introduction of
Buddhism (552)

Taika Reform (645)

 Reorganization and reform based largely on learning imported from China: Buddhism, writing system, bureaucratic organization, legal theories.
700 NARA (710-784) Establishment of fIrst permanent capital at Nara; emergence of Japanese pattems of administration and institutions. Beginning of classical period.
800 HEIAN (794-1185)
(Late Heian:
FUJIWARA)

Great flowering of classical Japanese culture in new capital of Heian-kyo (Kyoto). Court aristocracy, especially women, produced a great body of literature--poetry, diaries, the novel The Tale of Genji--and made refined aesthetic sensibility their society's hallmark.

1100

KAMAKURA
(1185-1333)

Kemmu Restoration
(1333-1336)

Beginning of military rule, as samurai (warriors) replaced nobles as actual rulers of Japan. Imperial court remained in Kyoto but shogun's governing organization was based in Kamakura, which is south of modern Tokyo.
1400 ASHIKAGA
(1338-1573) (MUROMACHI)		 New warrior government in Kyoto retained marginal control of the country, but from its base in Kyoto's Muromachi district became patron of newly flourishing artistic tradition, influenced by Zen Buddhist culture as well as samurai and court society.
 

Country at War

Unification
(1568-1598)

Warring factions engaged in lengthy, destructive civil wars.

1600

1800

 TOKUGAWA(EDO)
(1600-1867)		 Country unified under military government which maintained 250 years of secluded peace, leading to development of vibrant urban "middle-class" culture with innovations in economic organization, literature, and the arts.
1900

MEIJI RESTORATION
(1868)
Meija Period
(1868-1912)
Taisho (1912-1926)
Showa (1926-1989)

CONTEMPORARY JAPAN
1945-Present
Heisei (1989- )

 Emergence, through Western stimulus, into modern international world marked by dratic alterations in institutions, traditional social organization, and culture.

Prepared by Dr. Amy Vladeck Heinrich, Director, C.V. Starr East Asian Library,
Columbia University, for the Columbia University Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum.
Copyright 1994 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.