National Haiku Poetry Day 2025 is on Thursday, April 17, 2025: Can you haiku ?

Thursday, April 17, 2025 is National Haiku Poetry Day 2025. Couplets: a multi-author poetry blog tour — Angie Werren poetry in a tiny house.

It is beyond me

Im out of my depth with this

I'll never prevail.

HOW was China's influence on Medieval Japan was illustrated by Japan's devleopment?

Japan first appeared in written history in AD 57 with the following mention in China's Book of Later Han: "Across the ocean from Luoyang are the people of Wa (in Chinese, "Wo" or "dwarf state"). Formed from more than one hundred tribes, they come and pay tribute frequently."

Group of Haniwa statues, 5th-6th century, Fukushima Fukushima Prefecture.China's Book of Wei in the 3rd century noted the country of Yamataikoku, the unification of some 30 smaller tribes or states and ruled by a shaman queen named Himiko.

During the Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty, Chinese travelers to what is now Kyushu record inhabitants who claim as descendants of the Wu (state) and Wu Taibo. The inhabitants also show traits of the pre-sinicized Wu people with tattooing, teeth-pulling and baby-carrying. The Book of Wei records the physical descriptions that are similar to ones on Haniwa statues, such men with braided hair, tattooing and women wearing large, single-piece clothing.

The archaeological site Yoshinogari site is the most famous Yayoi site and reveals a large, continuously inhabited settlement in Kyushu for several hundreds of years. Excavation has shown the most ancient parts to be around 400 BCE. Artifacts include iron and bronze objects, including those from China. Well-crafted bronze mirrors with Qin Dynasty styles and iron cauldrons are some examples. It appears the inhabitants had frequent communication with the mainland and trade relations. A reconstructed archaeological park now exists on the site. Most buildings show ancient Chinese and Japanese elements using wood construction.

[edit] Ancient and Classical Japan

Iron helmet and armour with gilt bronze decoration, Kofun period, 5th century. Tokyo National Museum.Yamato polity (大和政権, Yamato polity?) was the main ruling power in Japan from the middle of the 3rd century until 710. The Kofun period (mid 3rd century - mid 6th century), is defined by a tumulus-building culture; the keyhole-shaped tumuli are called kofun. The Asuka period (mid 6th century - 710), is defined as the time in which the capital was in Asuka, near present-day Nara.

During the 5th and 6th centuries, there was much contact between the Baekje kingdom of the southern part of the Korean peninsula and the Yamato state. Some of the results of this contact were the introduction of Buddhism to Japan by people from Baekje, and military support given by the Yamato state to Baekje. The main difference between the Yayoi period and the Kofun-Asuka periods is the development from a sedentary and agricultural culture to a more advanced and militaristic culture from China via the Korean peninsula. This was replaced by Tang Dynasty Chinese influences during the Nara period which introduced centralized imperial government, aesthetics and religion instead of military advances during the Kofun-Asuka eras.[3][4]

[edit] Kofun Period

Main article: Kofun period

The Kofun period, beginning around AD 250, is named after the large burial mounds (古墳, Kofun?) that appeared at the time. The Kofun period saw the establishment of strong military states centered around powerful clans, and the establishment of a dominant polity centered in the Yamato area, from the 3rd century to the 7th century, the Yamato Court, origin of the Japanese imperial lineage. The Yamato Court, suppressing the clans and acquiring agricultural lands, maintained a strong influence in the western part of Japan (the Asuka region). Based upon the Chinese model, they developed a central administration and an imperial court system and society was organized into occupation groups.

Several proto-state formations rivalled one another, possibly representing different ethnic backgrounds. There are hypotheses of a couple of bigger migrations waves of continental population to central areas of Japanese islands during this period, each bringing something vitally new or becoming a basis of a polity formation.[citation needed]

Close relationships between the Three Kingdoms of Korea and Japan began during the middle of this period, around the end of the 4th Century. According to the Gwanggaeto Stele, Japan actively participated with large armies on the Korean Peninsula during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. According to the Book of Song, of the Liu Song Dynasty, the Chinese emperor appointed his king of Yamato to also be ruler of Silla, Baekje, and the Gaya confederacy.[5]　 According to the Samguk Sagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), Baekje and Silla sent their princes as hostages to the Yamato court to ensure military support; King Asin of Baekje sent his son Jeonji in 397[6] and King Silseong of Silla sent his son Misaheun in 402.[7]

[edit] Asuka period

Main article: Asuka period

The Asuka period (飛鳥時代, Asuka period?) is when the proto-Japanese Yamato polity gradually became a clearly centralized state, defining and applying a code of governing laws, such as the Taika Reform and Taihō Codes.[8] The introduction of Buddhism led to the discontinuing of the practice of burial mounds, or kofun.

Buddhism was introduced to Japan by Baekje, to which Japan provided military support, [9] and it was promoted by the ruling class. Prince Shotoku devoted his efforts to the spread of Buddhism and Chinese culture in Japan. He is credited with bringing relative peace to Japan through the proclamation of the Jūshichijō kenpō (十七条憲法), often referred to in Japan as the Seventeen-article constitution, a Confucian style document that focused on the kinds of morals and virtues that were to be expected of government officials and the emperor's subjects.

In a letter brought to the Emperor of China by an emissary from Japan in 607 stated that the 'Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises' (Japan) sends a letter to the 'Emperor of the land where Sun sets' (China)[10], thereby implying an equal footing with China which angered the Chinese emperor.[11]

Starting with the Taika Reform Edicts of 645, Japanese intensified the adoption of Chinese cultural practices and reorganized the government and the penal code in accordance with the Chinese administrative structure (the Ritsuryo state) of the time. This paved the way for the dominance of Confucian philosophy in Japan until the 19th century. This period also saw the first uses of the word Nihon (日本) as a name for the emerging state.Period

The Nara period of the 8th century marked the first emergence of a strong Japanese state. Following an Imperial rescript by Empress Genmei the move of the capital to Heijō-kyō, present-day Nara, took place in 710. The city was modelled on the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Chang'an (now Xi'an).

During the Nara Period, political developments were quite limited, since members of the imperial family struggled for power with the Buddhist clergy as well as the regents, the Fujiwara clan. Japan did enjoy friendly relations with Silla as well as formal relationships with Tang China. In 784, the capital was moved again to Nagaoka (to escape the Buddhist priests) and then in 794 to Heian-kyo, present-day Kyoto.

Historical writing in Japan culminated in the early 8th century with the massive chronicles, the Kojiki (The Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720). These chronicles give a legendary account of Japan's beginnings in which the people were descendants of the gods themselves. According to the myths contained in these 2 chronicles, Japan was founded in 660 BC by the ancestral Emperor Jimmu, a direct descendant of the Shinto deity Amaterasu, or the Sun Goddess. The myths also claim that Jimmu started a line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day. However, historians believe the first emperor who actually existed was Emperor Ōjin, though the date of his reign is uncertain. For most of Japan's history, actual political power has not been in the hands of the emperor, but in the hands of the court nobility, the shoguns, the military and, more recently, the prime minister.The Heian period (平安時代, Heian period?), lasting from 794 to 1185, is the final period of classical Japanese history. It is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially in poetry and literature. In the early 11th century, Lady Murasaki wrote the world's oldest surviving novel called The Tale of Genji.

Strong differentiations from Asian mainland culture traits emerged (such as an indigenous writing system, the kana). Chinese influence had reached its peak, and then effectively ended with the last Imperial-sanctioned mission to Tang China in 838, due to the decline of the Tang Dynasty, although trade expeditions and Buddhist pilgrimages to China continued.[12]

Political power in the Imperial court was in the hands of powerful aristocratic families, especially the Fujiwaras who ruled under the titles Sessho and Kampaku (regents).

The end of the period saw the rise of various military clans. Towards the end of the 12th century, conflicts between those clans turned into civil war (the Hōgen and Heiji Rebellions, followed by the Genpei war), from which emerged a society led by samurai clans, under the political rule of a shogun.

[edit] Feudal Japan

The "feudal" period of Japanese history, dominated by the powerful regional families (daimyo) and the military rule of warlords (shogun), stretched from the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries. The Emperor remained but was (mostly) kept to a de jure figurehead ruling position. This time is usually divided into periods following the reigning family of the shogun:

[edit] Kamakura Period

Main article: Kamakura period

The Kamakura period (鎌倉時代, Kamakura period?), 1185 to 1333, is a period that marks the governance of the Kamakura Shogunate and the transition to the Japanese "medieval" era, a nearly 700-year period in which the emperor (天皇 tennō), the court, and the traditional central government were left intact but were largely relegated to ceremonial functions. Civil, military and judicial matters were controlled by the bushi (武士) class, the most powerful of whom was the de facto national ruler, the shogun. This period in Japan differed from the old shōen system in its pervasive military emphasis.

In 1185, Minamoto no Yoritomo defeated the rival Taira clan. And in 1192, Yoritomo was appointed Seii Tai-Shogun by the emperor, and has established a base of power in Kamakura. Yoritomo ruled as the first in a line of Kamakura shoguns. However, after Yoritomo's death, another warrior clan, the Hōjō, came to rule as regents for the shoguns.

Japanese samurai boarding Mongol ships in 1281.A traumatic event of the period was the Mongol invasions of Japan between 1272 and 1281, in which massive Mongol forces with superior naval technology and weaponry attempted a full-scale invasion of the Japanese islands. A famous typhoon referred to as kamikaze, translating as divine wind in Japanese, is credited with devastating both Mongol invasion forces, although some scholars assert that the defensive measures the Japanese built on the island of Kyūshū may have been adequate to repel the invaders. Although the Japanese were successful in stopping the Mongols, the invasion attempt had devastating domestic repercussions, leading to the extinction of the Kamakura shogunate.

The Kamakura period ended in 1333 with the destruction of the shogunate and the short reestablishment of imperial rule (the Kemmu restoration) under the Emperor Go-Daigo by Ashikaga Takauji, Nitta Yoshisada, and Kusunoki Masashige. The Kamakura period is also said to be the beginning of the "Japanese Middle Ages", which also includes the Muromachi period and lasted until the Meiji Restoration.

[edit] Muromachi Period

Main article: Muromachi period

The Muromachi period (室町時代, Muromachi-jidai?) is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Ashikaga shogunate also called Muromachi shogunate, which was officially established in 1336 by the first Muromachi shogun Ashikaga Takauji, who seized political power from Emperor Go-Daigo, ending the Kemmu restoration. The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki was driven out of the capital in Kyōto by Oda Nobunaga.

The early years of 1336 to 1392 of the Muromachi period is also known as the Nanboku-chō or Northern and Southern Court period, as the Imperial court was split in two.

The later years of 1467 to the end of the Muromachi period is also known as the Sengoku period, the "Warring States period", a time of intense internal warfare, and corresponds with the period of the first contacts with the West, with the arrival of Portuguese "Nanban" traders.

See also: Nanban trade period and Sengoku period

A group of Portuguese Nanban foreigners, 17th century, Japan.In about 1542, a Portuguese ship, blown off its course to China, landed in Japan. Firearms introduced by Portuguese would bring the major innovation to Sengoku period culminating in the Battle of Nagashino where reportedly 3,000 arquebuses (the actual number is believed to be around 2,000) cut down charging ranks of samurai. During the following years, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands, England, and Spain arrived, as did Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries.

See also: Christianity in Japan

[edit] Azuchi-Momoyama Period

Main article: Azuchi-Momoyama period

The Azuchi-Momoyama period (安土桃山時代, Azuchi-Momoyama-jidai?) runs from approximately 1568 to 1600. The period marks the military reunification and stabilization of the country under a single political ruler, first by the campaigns of Oda Nobunaga who almost united Japan, achieved later by one of his generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The name Azuchi-Momoyama comes from the names of their respective castles, Azuchi castle and Momoyama castle.

After having united Japan, Hideyoshi invaded Korea, however, after unsuccessful campaigns toward the allied forces of Korea and China and his death, his forces retreated from the Korean peninsula.

The short period of succession conflict to Hideyoshi was ended when Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the regents for Hideyoshi's young heir, emerged victorious at the Battle of Sekigahara and seized political power.

[edit] Edo Period

Main article: Edo period

Stone foundation of the main tower at Edo Castle.During the Edo Period (江戸時代, Edo Period?), the administration of the country was shared by over two hundred daimyo. The Tokugawa clan, leader of the victorious eastern army in the Battle of Sekigahara, was the most powerful of them, and for fifteen generations monopolized the title of Sei-i Taishōgun (often shortened to shōgun). With their headquarters at Edo (present-day Tokyo), the Tokugawa commanded the allegiance of the other daimyo, who in turn ruled their domains with a rather high degree of autonomy.

The shogunate carried out a number of significant policies. They placed the samurai class above the commoners: the agriculturists, artisans, and merchants. They enacted sumptuary laws limiting hair style, dress, and accessories. They organized commoners into groups of five, and held all responsible for the acts of each individual. To prevent daimyo from rebelling, the shoguns required them to maintain lavish residences in Edo and live at these residences on a rotating schedule; carry out expensive processions to and from their domains; contribute to the upkeep of shrines, temples, and roads; and seek permission before repairing their castles.

A 1634 Japanese Red seal ship, during the Edo period.Many artistic developments took place during the Edo Period. Most significant among them were the ukiyo-e form of wood-block print, and the kabuki and bunraku theaters. Also, many of the most famous works for the koto and shakuhachi date from this time period.

Throughout the Edo Period, the development of commerce, the rise of the cities, and the pressure from foreign countries changed the environment in which the shoguns and daimyo ruled. In 1868, following the Boshin War, the shogunate collapsed, and a new government coalesced around the Emperor.

[edit] Seclusion

Main article: Sakoku

Japan's first treatise on Western anatomy, published in 1774, an example of Rangaku.During the early part of the 17th century, the shogunate suspected that the traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers. This caused the shogunate to place foreigners under progressively tighter restrictions. It monopolized foreign policy, and expelled traders, missionaries, and foreigners, with the exception of the Dutch and the Chinese merchants restricted to the manmade island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay and several small trading outposts outside the country. However, during this period of isolation (sakoku) that began in 1641, Japan was much less cut off from the rest of the world than is commonly assumed, and some acquisition of western knowledge occurred under the Rangaku system.

Russian encroachments from the north led the shogunate to extend direct rule to Hokkaidō, Sakhalin and the Kuriles in 1807 but the policy of exclusion continued.

I need to write a poem!? about identity?

Have a look at the following article and poems,

for ideas and inspiration to get you started:-

Share your favourite poems on identity

Today, as you doubtless already know, is National Poetry Day, and this year the Poetry Society has taken "identity" as the day's theme. "Nothing matters more than who we are in the world, where we have been and where we are going," says the Society's virtual poet-in-residence, Jackie Kay. "The issue of identity is at the heart of our society and involves everyone."

Also

If Only You Knew: A Poem on Identity

Best Poems About / On Identity