5.3 Notes: LIFE IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN

1. Chinese culture greatly influenced Japan. Many Japanese artists, scribes, traders, and diplomats visited China.

2. Japanese practiced both Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto was about daily life, and Buddhism prepared people for the afterlife. “You live a Shintoist and die a Buddhist.”

I. JAPANESE RELIGION AND CULTURE

3. Pure Land Buddhism stressed a happy life after death and Lord Amida, the Buddha of love and mercy, created a paradise above the clouds.

4. Zen Buddhism taught that people could find inner peace through self-control and a simple way of life. It focuses on meditation and martial arts.

Which sect do you think the Samurai class followed and why? What other religions have developed many sects?

5. Japanese art and architecture reveals a love of beauty and simplicity. Wooden items coated in lacquer (shiny coating), landscape paintings, calligraphy, origami and tea ceremonies.

ORIGAMI ART

6. Shinto shrines followed Japanese styles and were very simple and built near nature. Buddhist temples followed Chinese styles and were richly decorated.

7. The Japanese adopted the Chinese writing style using characters. But, they added symbols that stood for sounds. They practiced calligraphy.

8. The Japanese wrote poems (tanka and haiku), stories, and plays. The Tale of Genji, a novel written by Murasaki Shikibu, was about a Japanese prince and upper class life in AD 1000.

II. ECONOMY AND SOCIETY1. Once the shoguns took power, very few people benefited

while the emperor, the nobles, and the top military officials got rich. Women lost freedom under the shoguns.

2. Most people remained poor peasants who farmed daimyo estates and artisans who made goods.

3. Advances in irrigation improved farming and lives got better. Artisans began producing more products such as textiles, paper, and metal goods. The economy and trade grew. Artisans and merchants formed guilds to protect their profits.