The Evolution of Japanese Culture

Evan Elias

California State University Monterey Bay

JAPN 305

Takahashi

5/15/17
 Table of Contents

1 --------------------------------------Introduction

1-3 --------------------------------Early Japanese Religion

4-7 ----------------------------------Japanese Literature

7-11--------------------------------Japanese Samurai Culture

12 -----------------------------------Conclusion

13 ---------------------------------------References
 Introduction
The Japanese culture is popular and famous worldwide. One would be hard pressed to

discover a person who did not know a thing about some portion of Japanese culture. If asked

what they knew about Japan, they would likely answer something about Samurai or maybe even

something regarding Anime and Manga. Japanese culture is so widespread that there are literally

sushi restaurants found in many countries worldwide. What people might not know about is how

modern Japanese culture first developed.

Japan originally was highly influenced by the culture of other countries, mainly China.

As evidence of that, much of their early architecture and traditions were based off of China’s.

For example, early Japanese palaces utilized large red pillars and Chinese styled roofs. Later on,

Buddhism, a religion prevalent in China and India came to Japan as well and spread like wildfire.

However, instead of losing their own culture in favor of another, Japan did something else

entirely. They melded the cultures and traditions into the Japanese tradition and made it

something entirely their own. This is something that the Japanese continued to do and still

continue to do to this day. I will be explaining exactly how Japanese structure developed through

the ages, starting with early religion and then going all the way through to misconceptions about

the samurai.

Early Japanese Religion

The Japanese religious structure is a mirror that reflects every other aspect of the country.

Japan is both a land that has its own, unique, culture that is different from everyone else and a

country that shares cultural aspects with many different countries and made them their own. The

same can be said for the Japanese religious structure. It is a massive combination of many
different religions, from traditional Japanese Shinto, Buddhism and Omyōdo. As was explained

in class, the original Japanese religion was Shinto, which has an abundance of Kami, or an

existence akin to a god or spirit.

It was because of the traditional Japanese belief that everything can become a Kami, that

they were so open and able to absorb other people’s religious beliefs and not abandon their own.

For example, when people from China brought Buddhism to Japan, their gods merely became

another Kami in the 8 Million Kami belief. The same can be said when Europe began trying to

spread Christianity in Japan. Jesus merely became yet another Kami in their own belief system.

That is why, throughout the ages, the Japanese religion has absorbed traditions, rituals and

beliefs from many different sources and evolved through the ages, while keeping its own

traditional values.

One of these traditional values was the belief that these Kami, spirits and Yokai exist

alongside humans, whether they can be seen or not. This is most evident in the animated works

that come out of Japan. In these works, it is quite rare when a Kami, spirit, or Yokai has no

appearance. It is also in these works where we can see many of the Japanese beliefs about Kami

and Yokai. A good example of that can be seen in the second episode of the Anime, Natsume

Yuujinchou, or Natsume’s Book of Friends. In this anime, the main character, Natsume, has had

the ability to see the unseen since his childhood. In this case, the unseen is Yokai, or traditional

Japanese monsters. Unlike western monsters or demons, however, Japanese Yokai are almost the

same thing as Kami. They are not intrinsically bad, just like Kami aren’t intrinsically good. They
are something inhuman that live alongside humans that can be dangerous at times merely

because they are different.

In this episode, Natsume befriends a Swallow Yokai, who takes the form of a person in a

mask, and tries to help her meet with a man that helped her when she was still merely a young

bird, before she turned into a Yokai. This was made especially difficult since the man couldn’t

see her. In this we can see the relationship between the two, human and Yokai. They both effect

and live alongside another, yet very few if any on the human’s side can interact with the Yokai.

Likewise, in another anime viewed in class, Mushi-Shi, a being called Mushi take the

place of Yokai and spirits in the world. They are mysterious, magical beings that not everyone

can see, but everyone can feel the effect of them and some people can get dragged away into

their world. A good example of this can be seen in the episode, where a girl gets forcibly dragged

into a marching line of Mushi, who lead her deep into a forest where they were having a drinking

party. They force her to drink the sake, which will turn her into a Mushi herself. In this we can

see the Japanese belief that Yokai and spirits can be unpredictable and dangerous as well as the

traditional Japanese belief of Sake-Zuki. Sake-Zuki is a tradition where one makes a deal or

becomes a part of one’s family by the exchange of sake cups. In the anime’s case, the deal is that

once the girl drank the sake, she would become one of them, something that also includes the

belief that anything can become Yokai, humans included.

 Japanese Literature
Another aspect of Japanese culture that took many things from other cultures is the

literature. Japanese literature is one of the best ways to learn things about ancient Japanese

history, traditions and culture. Originally, the Japanese had no written language of their own.

They had their own unique language and beliefs, but no characters to describe them with a pen.

Instead, they took the Chinese Kanji and adapted it to their own language. As such, the early

Japanese were bilingual and learned Japanese and Chinese from an early age (Adolphson, Heian

Japan, 105). Similar to how they adapted foreign religious beliefs into their own Shinto religion,

they did the same with the written word of the Chinese people.

Once they adapted the Kanji to fit Japanese words, it did not take long for them to create

a written language made specifically for Japanese. As explained in the lectures, they took parts

of Kanji and simplified them to symbolize the various sounds in the Japanese tongue. From that,

they created Hiragana and Katakana. Both of which are very important parts of the language.

Katakana became the characters used to spell out foreign words and Hiragana, in fact, is the set

of characters that most literature in the Heian and Kamakura periods was written in.

Japanese literature from the Heian and Kamakura periods are as informative as a history

book when used to dredge up the secrets and way of life from the time. As works of literature,

they are special because they are some of the earliest novels ever written, such as the Tale of

Genji, written around 1000 AD. Despite being some of the first novels, literature from this time

can be used to see how nobles, samurai, monks and, to a lesser extent, the common person lived

during the Heian and Kamakura periods. A good example being in The Pillow Book, where Sei

Shonagon wrote about her opinions of life, like what she finds elegant, as well as some of her
experiences at the Heian Court. In one story, we learn that a handler for the royal dog jokingly

asks the dog to bite someone, which he does. The emperor then banishes the dog from the palace

and orders him beaten if he comes close. In another entry, we see a story of how the Empress of

the time is ill, and the court calls in omyoji, sorcerers of a kind, to deal with the illness. From

this, we can see just what the religious beliefs of the time where, as well as how advanced

medical technology was at the time. In this diary-like literature, we have a window into the

Heian court. Likewise, Sei Shonagon’s fellow handmaiden and rival, Murasaki Shikkibu, wrote

diary-like literature as well.

Unfortunately, as most of the literature of the time was written by noblewomen in the

court, life of the common Japanese citizen wasn’t very well shown in this literature. The closest

we can get into seeing about the more common man is in the story The Tale of the Heike, an epic

tale of a war between the two largest Samurai families of the Heian/Kamakura time, the

Minamoto and the Heike. This is an embellished story of real-life events that happened in Japan

during the time. In this story, we can see history from a point of view we wouldn’t normally see

in the history books, as well as the opinions and mindset of the Japanese, in the embellishments

that were added to the tale through the years. In the historical standpoint, we can see how much

the samurai of the era valued bows, rather than the katana. In one part of the epic, the Genji and

Heike forces stopped in the middle of a battle to shoot at a target held up by a Heike

noblewoman in the middle of a battle. The leader of the Genji side called out their best archer to

hit it. Nervous that he would miss and dishonor his lord, the best archer came up and took aim.

Everyone in the battle stopped to watch the bowman shoot and both sides, Genji and Heike,

cheered when the arrow thudded through the target and into the wood behind it. Though this part
of the story is probably an embellishment, in it we can see both historical fact, in that the bow

was the most important weapon of the time, as well as the mindset and views of the Japanese

people, in that honoring one’s name and family was very important.

In addition to seeing the samurai and nobles in this story, we can see information about

the common person too. One of the most famous characters in the story, and in Japanese history,

can be seen in The Tale of the Heike. His name was Musashibo Benkei, one of the main

characters of the story, Yoshitsune Minamoto’s most faithful servant. Benkei was a monk soldier

and one of the characters in the story that did not come from a noble background. In his story, we

see a great warrior of unparalleled strength who served his master with utmost loyalty. Do this

day, Benkei is remembered in Japan as an embodiment of loyalty.

So, in a literary sense these stories are valuable because of their status of some of the first

novels as well as being some of the first pieces of literature written by women. In a historical

sense, they are valuable due to the plethora of history that can be seen in the words and stories

told. Unlike old pieces of pottery and arrowheads, which need an archeologist and a lot of study

and time, these pieces only need to be read in order to work out a lot of historic facts that would

be difficult to figure out otherwise. These stories are some of the world’s earliest literature and

are treasures worth more than quite a bit of gold. They are literary masterpieces due to their

authors and time of creation and they are a source of pride to the Japanese people. To us, those

learning more about Japanese culture, they are windows into a time long gone.
 Japanese Samurai Culture

The samurai, the symbol of Japan the world over. When someone thinks of Japan, the

first thing that they invariably think of is this famed warrior clad in kimono and his trusty curved

blade, the katana. The Japanese samurai is, at the same time, both one of the most well-known

figures in Japanese history and one of the least well-known figures. What most people know

about the samurai, is what the movies, television, manga and anime have told about them. The

problem is, most media tell a highly-romanticized version of the samurai that isn’t entirely true,

something even some Japanese natives aren’t aware of. So, to get to the bottom of the true

face of the samurai, and escape from the fictional warrior, paraded by the popular media, we

must first go back in time, to the Heian Period of Japan, to when the famed warrior class first

began.

As referenced by the lecture, the Heian Period of Japan ran from 794 C.E. (Common Era)

to 1185 C.E. Heian, or (平安), literally uses the kanji for peace (平) and the kanji for safety (安)

and that perfectly describes the nature of the time period. It was a time of affluence and luxury

for the nobility of Japan, and a time when the arts flourished. The first novel ever written was

penned during this time by a noblewoman that lived in the royal palace, Murasaki Shikkibu.

As was also mentioned in the lecture, Japanese language made many leaps and bounds

during this time-period. Before this time, the only written language that the Japanese had was

borrowed from China in the form of Kanji. Though this Kanji was, admittedly, used differently in

Japan to fit their own language, it was still very much Chinese characters. In the Heian period,
this all changed when the Hiragana and Katakana characters were developed. This was the first,

truly Japanese alphabet that allowed many new works of literature to be developed. One such

work is especially important as it details one of the most important power struggles in Japanese

history, the Tale of the Heike.

The Tale of the Heike is a story detailing a power struggled between two warring

families, the Genji (Minamoto) and the Taira (Heike). This struggle ended the Heian period and

began the Kamakura period and the age of the Samurai when Minamoto no Yoritomo, one of

the Genji, defeated the Taira and established the shogunate. So, whilst the Heian period was

generally a period of peace, it led to the rise of the warrior class, the Samurai.

We can use this story to find out many things about the warriors of the time, called

bushi and not samurai until later. One of the main things we can learn about bushi was that,

contrary to popular belief, their weapon of choice and the weapon that dominated the

battlefield was not the sword, but the bow and arrow. We can see in many movies that samurai

are noble warriors of the sword, who follow their code of Bushido (Way of the Warrior), such as

in Ame Agaru, a movie made by famed Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. However, this kind

of samurai and mindset did not come until much later, after the constant wars of the Kamakura

period stopped and the Tokugawa shogunate held all of Japan.

As originally stated and stated in the lectures, the main weaponry of the samurai that

were actually used in wars were the bow and arrow, by the higher-class samurai and the spear

and naginata (a halberd-like spear), by the lower-class samurai (Friday, Legacies of the Sword:

The Kashima, 13). All samurai did, in fact, carry swords but they were only a weapon of last

resort, when the enemy got up close. Usually, when this happened, it was too late. It wasn't
until the Tokugawa shogunate reigned supreme that the modern vision of samurai became

reality.

During the Tokugawa shogunate, all the wars were over and Japan was fully unified by

one ruling family. Because of this, the ruling class, the samurai, were no longer needed to fight

in constant wars. In order to not feel useless and to prove to the common peasants that they

were still superior, the Samurai of this period developed many sword schools and the famed

ethos, Bushido. The sword was something only permitted to be worn by samurai, and thus, it

became their symbol.

Similar to the Heian period in a way, there was nothing for the Samurai to do in this

time period. They usually spent many boring hours at their post, usually a guard post which was

usually more iconic than actually useful, before heading home or to the dojo. A good example

can be seen in the story, Shinza, the Samurai. Shinza, the main character, was a samurai born in

the last part of the Kamakura era of warfare and had participated in actual war. When

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the last warlord to be defeated by Tokugawa, lost Shinza became a guard

at a local keep. He found the position boring and longed for the climate of war, yet lived every

day at a guard’s post (Shinza, the Samurai, 129-130).

Some samurai weren’t even that lucky, and had nothing to do other than exist on their

family’s money, jobless because they could not get a job. Samurai were not permitted to work

in fields that were seen as lower class, such as merchants or famers. As such, many samurai

used their free time to create Bushido (The Way of the Warrior), a warrior’s code, and created

and practiced in many sword schools. A good example of this is from an old story where a

couple of samurai, who are studying in the Torii Dojo, get hired for some internal struggle
regarding the succession of the shogun. (All For a Melon, 58). Their real job was with a

construction corps, but they spent most of their time in the dojo.

Before the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan, and the samurai were actually fighting,

there was no such thing as a warrior’s code. Nor was there time for samurai to spend many

hours in a school to work on their sword fighting. They learned to fight and fought in wars from

an early age, and died at an early age as well. A poem, made during this time, perfectly showed

this fact of life. “Among flowers, the cherry blossom, among men, the samurai” (Lecture). This

poem illustrated the short-livedness of the samurai, likening them to the cherry blossom, a

flower that blooms briefly, only once a year, before the petals fall to the ground.

At any case, the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan in an unending dynasty from the Edo

period until the Meiji Restoration in 1868, where the samurai class was abolished. It was during

this time of relative peace, that the famed warrior class created the mythos and stories that are

now well known, worldwide. Despite not having fought in any actual wars until the Meiji

period, it was these samurai that became well known and became the icon of Japan, not the

samurai from the Kamakura period when fighting was actually taking place.

Samurai are a beloved cultural icon world-wide for many reasons, but I feel the biggest

reason is that they are both exotic, yet familiar. For instance, many stories about traditional,

chivalrous, European knights are still known, told, and beloved today. A good example of that

being the tale of The Sword in the Stone and The Knights of the Round Table, which are

legendary English tales of King Arthur and his knights. Samurai are another similar tale,

regarding fanaticized warriors that follow a code of chivalry, in this case called Bushido. Also,
samurai were different enough to garner interest as something exotic and interesting. For

instance, to the western world, the traditional clothes, wooden sandals, and topknot were

something completely unique and unheard of anywhere else. In fact, the topknot was a part of

Japanese culture that even some of the common folk wore, as seen in Dancing Hands with the

landlord (Dancing Hands, 238). They were the ruling class, standing above the rest with their

warrior skills and excellent manners and ethics. A good example was seen in class with the

modern samurai movie, A Boy and His Samurai, that showed most, if not all, of the traditional

stereotypes of the samurai. One such example is the main character’s refusal that woman can’t

work, and must stay in the house to do housework. Another is his manners whilst moving,

keeping his sword on his left side while he sits, and using old fashioned samurai language with

words such as, “de gozaru” and “sessha” (A Boy and His Samurai).

People enjoy tales of war and skilled warriors that follow a code or just the fantasy of

the person, true or not. That’s part of the reason that movies starring knights or samurai are so

popular, even to this day. Akira Kurasawa, the legendary director himself, made many movies

that are popular worldwide, precisely because of the samurai. A samurai is both, a very real and

illustrious part of Japanese history and an exaggerated mythical creature, getting stranger

through the ages. Both aspects of the samurai are respected and enjoyed by different parties

and no one is questioning that, samurai is to Japan as cowboy is to America.

 Conclusion

Japanese culture has many facets, many more than most people realize. Their religion

and language is an amalgamation of various different cultures and the cultures that most

people think that they are most aware of are actual some of the least well known parts of

Japanese history. Japanese culture is an evolving thing, something that absorbs things from

around it and makes it its own. A good example of this is the Katakana system. Originally used

to show the readings of Kanji, it later became a tool to spell out foreign words. From there,

words originally foreign could become Japanese through usage and time. For instance, the

Japanese word for bread, “pan” originally came from the Portuguese “Pão”. As time goes on,

“pan” will undoubtedly receive its own kanji and become a fully Japanese word. Similarly to

this, Japanese culture will continue to absorb traditions and beliefs from other cultures and

make it its own, all whilst maintaining its own distinct culture.

As we moved from the ancient Heian era of Japan, through the Kamakurua warring

periods and the Edo period and, finally, into modern day Japan we can easily see how Japanese

culture changed and evolved. Many outside influences changed how Japan did things, from the

advent to firearms from Europe to foreign words for these things. One thing that has not

changed, however, is the core values and beliefs of the Japanese culture. Needless to say,

despite a lot of additions being made to the Shinto belief, a Japanese man from the Heian

period and a modern day Japanese man would likely share a lot of basic core beliefs. That is

something unique to Japan that cannot be said about other countries around the world.
 References

Carter, R. E. (2008). The Japanese arts and self-cultivation. Albany: State University of New
York Press.

Friday, K. , Seki, F. (1997). Legacies of the Sword: The Kashima-ShinryuÌ and Samurai Martial
Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

Heian Japan, Centers and Peripheries. (2007). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.