5.3 Notes: LIFE IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN

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5.3 Notes LIFE IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN
I. JAPANESE RELIGION AND CULTURE

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

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

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1. 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
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1. Shinto shrines followed Japanese styles and were
   very simple and built near nature. Buddhist
   temples followed Chinese styles and were richly
   decorated.

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

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• II. ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
• 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.
• Most people remained poor peasants who farmed
  daimyo estates and artisans who made goods.
• 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.