01 Japanese History
A brief summary of Japanese history in 3 minutes. The videos are available on You Tube.
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#04 The Asuka Period
Click here to go to the YouTube video Hi, welcome to Japanese history in three minutes. I’m teacher Sat, a national government licensed guide interpreter living in Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan. Our theme this time is the Asuka period.Let’s take a look at Japan around the 6th and 7th centuries when Prince Shotoku was active and the Asuka culture flourished. In the 6th century, the powerful Soga clan took control of the Yamato government. Soga Umako enthroned her niece, Empress Suiko. And her nephew, Prince Shotoku, was assigned to assist the empress in politics as regent. Prince Shotoku established the twelve-level cap and rank system and appointed officials…
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#03 The Kofun Period
Click here to go to the YouTube video From the latter half of the 3rd century, ancient burial mounds, or kofun, began to appear, mainly in western Japan. The Kofun Period occurred up to around the 6th century, when many burial mounds were actively created. Kofuns are the tombs of powerful families who were the rulers of various regions. The Daisen Kofun in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, is the largest tomb in the world in terms of area. It is thought that powerful forces emerged in the Kinki region, where particularly large tombs were built. The top of the tomb was lined with pottery known as haniwa. Many items were…
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#02 The Yayoi Period
Click here to go to the YouTube video Around the 8th century B.C.E, rice cultivation techniques originating in China were introduced to northern Kyushu in Japan via the Korean Peninsula. People from the Korean peninsula brought rice cultivation tools, new earthenware, and metal tools to Japan. By the 6th century B.C.E., this new culture had spread to most of Japan. As a result, people’s way of life changed. This was because rice cultivation required the cooperation of many people. People worked together to cultivate the paddy fields. The harvested rice was stored in common stilt warehouses. Because of this, villages were born. As food production increased, so did the population.…
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#01 The Jomon Period
Click here to go to the YouTube video A long, long time ago, Japan was connected to the continent. So the first Japanese probably crossed land bridges between Korea and Kyushu. But when sea levels rose at the end of the ice age more than 15,000 years ago, those land bridges disappeared. Japanese history started with the people who stayed on the Japanese archipelago. They lived by hunting and gathering things to eat. They hunted animals like deer and boars. They gathered seeds, plants, fish, and shellfish. Archeologists learn about these people by examining shell middens called Kaizuka in Japanese. The Jomon people made the earliest pottery in the world.…
