Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inventions were introduced from Asia. During this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese Book of Han in the first century AD.
Few nations on Earth have had a more colorful history than Japan. Settled by migrants from the Asian mainland back in the mists of prehistory, Japan has seen the rise and fall of emperors, rule by samurai warriors, isolation from the outside world, expansion over most of Asia, defeat, and rebirth.
Japan sought to become a modern industrialized nation and pursued the acquisition of a large overseas empire, initially in Korea and China. By late 1941 this latter policy caused direct confrontation with the United States and its allies and to defeat in World War II (1939–45).
The long and tumultuous history of Japan, believed to have begun as far back as the prehistoric era, can be divided into distinct periods and eras. From the Jomon Period thousands of years ago to the current Reiwa Era, the island nation of Japan has grown into an influential global power.
Japan - Shintoism, Buddhism, Samurai: It is not known when humans first settled on the Japanese archipelago. It was long believed that there was no Paleolithic occupation in Japan, but since World War II thousands of sites have been unearthed throughout the country, yielding a wide variety of Paleolithic tools.
Legends surrounding the founding of Japan are compiled as history in the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) and the Nihon shoki (Chronicle of Japan). With the adoption of Buddhism as the state religion, its monasteries gain political power.
The principal chronicles describing the origins of Japanese history are the Nihon shoki (“Chronicle of Japan”) and the Koji-ki (“Record of Ancient Matters”).
The early Japanese were mainly gatherers, hunters and fishers. The spread of rice farming leads to the development of more complex social hierarchies and larger settlements. Hundreds of small countries emerge and start to unify into larger countries. Japan is for the first time more or less united.
Japanese history began as early as 35,000 years ago. Here’s a timeline of the major periods Japan went through thereafter.
Around the 3rd century BC, the Yayoi peoplefrom the continent immigrated to the Japanese archipelago and introduced iron technology and agricultural civilization.[2]