Medieval Japan

Where is Japan?

• Asia

• Africa

• South of Korea

• North of China

What are some advantages and disadvantages of Japan’s location and terrain?

• It is mostly flat and has lots of land for growing crops.

• Land routes to the Asian continent have made it easy to invade and be influenced by foreigners.

• It is a mountainous island country with little land for settlement and farming which is easy to close off to invaders.

• It only has one island which makes it easy to unify the people.

What is the relationship between Japan’s geography and its culture?

• It is mostly flat and has lots of land for growing crops.

• Land routes to the Asian continent have made it easy to invade and be influenced by foreigners.

• It is a mountainous island country with little land for settlement and farming which is easy to close off to foreigners.

• It only has one island which makes it easy to unify the people.

What inspired the development of the ancient Japanese religion called Shinto?

• Japan's beautiful views and landscapes

• Fear of Mongol invaders

• Rick Astley's music

• A tsunami

How did Japan’s geography affect where people settled?

• It is mostly flat and has lots of land for growing crops.

• Land routes to the Asian continent have made it easy to invade and be influenced by foreigners.

• It is a mountainous island country with little land for settlement and farming which is easy to close off to foreigners.

• It only has one island which makes it easy to unify the people.

What are some distinctive features of the Shinto religion?

• Belief in one god, making a pilgrimage, giving alms to the poor, praying 5 times a day, and fasting one month out of the year.

• Having a different god for each of the elements, worshiping the emperor.

• Believing that one day in the future God will come to earth in the form of a really good heavy metal band.

• Shinto has no founder, no holy scriptures, no moral code, and no clear date of origin. It also does not have elaborate temples. Instead, worshippers focus on simple shrines, or places that are considered sacred.

How did Prince Shotoku unify the Japanese people?

• By using Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, constantly until he was banned from all of those platforms.

• By introducing Chinese ideas and practices, strengthening imperial control, issuing a constitution that emphasized obedience to the emperor,

• By allowing people to vote in national elections.

• By instituting a social welfare program, controlling housing costs, providing low cost healthcare, and having a legally mandated minimum wage

What new forms of drama did the Japanese develop?

• Noh and Kabuki

• Broadway and off-Broadway

• Haiku and Shinto

• Calligraphy and suiboku

What are the characteristics of a Haiku poem?

• It is a long, epic story told in the form of a rhyming poem.

• It has 18 syllables in three unrhymed lines of 6, 8, and 6 syllables.

• Lots of naughty puns and words that rhyme with other more inappropriate ones.

• It has 17 syllables in three unrhymed lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

How are the literary works of Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon similar?

• They both wrote about court life.

• They each wrote unrhymed poems of 19 syllabes in a 6-7-6 pattern.

• They are the founders of modern anime.

• They wrote stories about large monsters that rose from the sea and threatened Tokyo.