Category: Japan

Japan Brief History 2

Japan Brief History Part II

The second phase of feudalism In the troubled period that followed, marked up to 1392 by the existence of two courts, that of the North and that of the South, ruled by two emperors,...

Japan Brief History 1

Japan Brief History Part I

The origins The first historical information on Japan is found in Chinese accounts of the 1st century. AD The oldest surviving Japanese texts are much later: the Kojiki (“Memoirs of the ancient events”, 712) and the Nihon...

Japan Between 1976 and 1992 3

Japan Between 1976 and 1992 Part III

The debate on the reasons for the moderate defeat directly affected the interpretation of the Japanese political moment in the late 1980s. Four were the reasons that were identified, with different assessments on the...

Japan Between 1976 and 1992 2

Japan Between 1976 and 1992 Part II

But this time, despite the dynamism and ” high tone ” that characterized Nakasone, the results were not very favorable. The Liberal Democrats reached only 45% of the votes and lost, together with 36...

Japan Between 1976 and 1992 1

Japan Between 1976 and 1992 Part I

1976 was a politically significant year for Japan A Supreme Court ruling declared the division of constituencies unconstitutional, which penalized the urban electorate to such an extent as to undermine the principle of political...

Japan Between 1868 and 1912 3

Japan Between 1868 and 1912 (The Meiji) Part III

The Miura case played the game of Russia, whose representative in Söul, a skilled diplomat, had tried in every way to hinder the work of the Japanese in the peninsula, the chaotic state of...

Japan Between 1868 and 1912 2

Japan Between 1868 and 1912 (The Meiji) Part II

A wide agitation in favor of this regime was already underway before the Saigō revolt, and the government, aware of the unpreparedness of the population, recently freed from the shackles of feudalism, to exercise...

Japan Between 1868 and 1912 1

Japan Between 1868 and 1912 (The Meiji) Part I

The contacts with the Europeans had shown the country its material inferiority and the danger, by remaining isolated, of losing its independence. On the other hand, many of those previously opposed to the opening...

Japan Arts and Architecture 3

Japan Arts and Architecture Part III

Muromachi period The Muromachi period (1338-1573), or Ashikaga from the name of the dominant clan, including the fifty-year period Nanbokuchō (1336-1392), sees the most complete expression of the aesthetic components linked to Zen in the visual...

Japan Arts and Architecture 2

Japan Arts and Architecture Part II

Nara period Buddhist art reaches its peak between 645 and 794; the epoch takes its name from the city of Heijō (od. Nara), built following the model of the Chang’an of the Tangs (618-907)...