Japanese Feudalism and the Kamakura Shogunate

Japanese Feudalism and the Kamakura Shogunate:

By 1185, the Minamoto clan had seized the reins of power in Japan and changed the Japanese political system.
The victorious Minamoto established a new government in the port city of Kamakura, far from Heian (modern-day Kyoto).
This new government became known as the shogunate.
With the Minamoto victory in 1185, Japan entered a centuries-long feudal period, in which political power was, to a large extent, decentralized.
As before, a figure head emperor was the symbolic head of the country.
But real rulership now rested in the hands of the shogun (“a great general”), among whose duties was to keep the emperor under his care.
The Kamakura shogunate (1185 – 1333) established by the Minamoto clan was a military government.
Below the shoguns were warlords called daimyo, landed aristocracy who developed into a new noble class, much as the knights of feudal Europe did during the Middle Ages.
The daimyo and their followers came from the warrior elite called the samurai, meaning “one who serves.”
To belong to the samurai class was a great privilege.
Just as European knights (in theory) lived by the ideals of chivalry, the samurai followed a strict code of loyalty and proper conduct called Bushido, or “way of the warrior.”
On the whole, Bushido was even more stringent than European chivalry.
It tended to be taken more seriously.
Famously, the most extreme penalty for violating the rules of Bushido was seppuku, or ritual suicide (popularly known as hara-kiri).
During the 1200s and early 1300s, the Kamakura shoguns kept order in Japan.
They even repelled two attempts (in 1279 and 1281) on the part of Khubilai Khan’s Yuan China to invade.
The second invasion force – a massive navy ferrying 140,000 troops to the Japanese islands – was destroyed by a sudden storm that the Japanese called kamikaze, or “divine wind.”
By the 1330s, however, decentralized proved too much for the Kamakura shoguns.
In 1333, the emperor of Japan, Go-Daigo, attempted to throw off shogun “protection” and rule in his own right.
This action started a civil war called Go-Daigo’s Rebellion (1333 – 1336).
Although Go-Daigo failed to win his fight, the effect of the war was also to sweep away the Kamakura shoguns.
In their place, a new feudal clan, the Ashikaga, sprang up.

The Ashikaga Shogunate:

The Ashikaga Shogunate (1336 – 1573) moved the seat of government back to Kyoto, where it would stay until the 1600s.
Under the Ashikaga Shogunate, trade and commerce flourished, and a wealthy merchant class emerged.
Chan Buddhism, known as Zen in Japan, arrived from China and became popular among the samurai class.
Another widespread form of Buddhism was Pure Land (Jo Do) Buddhism.
This promised a heaven to those who led moral lives during their worldly existence.
Pure Land gained a great following among those of the lower classes.
Rather than leaning so heavily on China for cultural inspiration, the Japanese now developed painting and musical styles that were uniquely their own, even more so than during the late Heian and Kamakura periods.
The ritualized form of theater known as Noh drama was born during these years.
Many Japanese cultural forms were influenced by the growing popularity of Zen Buddhism.
These included the famous tea ceremony (cha-no-yu), which placed emphasis on tranquility and intricate ritual.
Landscape gardening, closely related to philosophical and religious principles, became an important art form in Japan.
The cultivation of bonsai (trees shaped in such a way as to miniaturize them) and the arrangement of rock gardens were standard features of Japanese landscaping.
Haiku verses – composed of triple lines, measured in 17 syllables- dominated Japanese poetry.
Haiku’s simplicity, peacefulness, and emphasis on insight and enlightenment blend well with Zen Buddhism.
Politically, however, the Ashikaga shoguns were unable to maintain any real degree of centralization, especially after the mid-1400s.
Although the Ashikaga were nominally in charge of Japan until 1573, many daimyo and warlords were already ruling their lands semi-independently by 1400.
They defied the shoguns and, frequently, fought each other.
Starting in 1467, Japan would be shaken by civil war after civil war.
Over the next century, the Ashikaga Shogunate would become more and more meaningless, while Japan became more and more divided.
Not until the end of the 1500s and early 1600s would unity be restored.

Dar-al-Islam:

A principal goal of Islamic conquest remained the creation of a dar-al-Islam, “an abode of Islam,” a land with a government under which Islam could be practiced freely.
This did not mean, however, that the people of the land were forced to become Muslims, only that Muslims would have freedom to practice their religion and sustain their culture.
The alternative was a dar al-Harb, an “abode of war,” which had to be opposed because it restricted the practice of Islam.

Jelaluddin Rumi, "The Diwan of Shams-i-Tabriz" based on literal translation of number 31 in "Selected Poems", R.A. Nicholson (1898, pp.124-127), by Saadi Shakur Chisti (Neil Douglas-Klotz), in "Desert Wisdom", pp.173, Harper Collins: New York (1995)

Muslims! What can I do? I have lost my identity!
I am not a Christian, Jew, pagan, or Muslim.
I am neither an Easterner nor a Westerner,
neither a land nor a sea person.
Nature can't fully account for me,
nor can the whirling cosmos.
I don’t exclusively belong to earth, water, fire, or air.
I am not of the invisible-ineffable, nor of the dust –
I am not a process or a being.
I am not of this world or the next, and deserve
neither eternal reward nor eternal punishment.
I am not of Adam or Eve,
not of the original Garden nor the final one.
My home has no address; my tracks leave no trace.
I am neither body nor soul – What can I say?
I belong to the Self of the Beloved.
I have laid all “twos” aside:
this world and that world are one.
I search for One, I recognize One,
I see One clearly, and I call the name of the One.
That unnameable One, the breath of the breath,
is the first and last, the outside and the inside.
I identify no one except by “O That... O This!”
I am drunk on the cup of Love:
here-now and everywhere-all-time have vanished.
I can’t handle any business except celebration.
If I spend an instant without you,
that instant makes my whole life seem worthless.
If I can win one moment with you,
I will crush both worlds under my feet
as I dance in joy forever.
My Beloved Shams-i-Tabriz, I am living permanently
intoxicated:
I have no more stories to tell except ones about drunks and
parties.