Read Online A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower by Kenneth Henshall - Free Book Online
Authors: Kenneth Henshall
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day were not only active, they were positively assertive. But the outcome of things was attributed to fate. Though Buddhism does hold people ultimately accountable for their actions, and for the creation of their own fate, the insertion of karma and fortune into the cause and effect of events helped diffuse the issue of immediate moral responsibility. 30 It was easier to avoid issues of conscience when the outcome of events could be blamed on an earlier life. This fitted in nicely with deep-rooted Japanese preferences for the avoidance of moral judgement.
The famine and pestilence that brought a temporary halt to the fighting were just part of a series of natural disasters during the last few years of the Heian period, adding to the man-made disasters of warfare. There was also, for example, a severe typhoon in 1180, a major earthquake in 1184, and a number of serious fires and floods around the same time. These events were described graphically in a work written some thirty years later by a retired priest, Kamo no Chmei (c.1155–1216). His
Hjki
(The Ten Foot Square Hut) of 1212 describes the famine and pestilence of 1181–82: 31
.… beggars filled the streets and their clamour was deafening. … Respectable citizens who ordinarily wore hats and shoes now went barefooted begging fromhouse to house. … And by the walls and in the highways you could see every-where the bodies of those who had died of starvation. And as there was none to take them away, a terrible stench filled the streets.
With the combination of natural disasters and the Genpei (Minamoto-Taira) War it must certainly have seemed to many that the world was being turned upside-down, and perhaps that the final phase of humankind predicted in
mapp
was indeed imminent.
The general gloom and melancholy of these troubled times is reflected in the world-weary poetry of Saigy(1118–90). An aristocrat and one-time imperial guard, who had met both Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo, Saigyrenounced the world to lead the life of a reclusive monk. One of his best-known poems speaks far more than its few lines: 32
In a tree standing
Beside a desolate field,
The voice of a dove
Calling its companions –
Lonely, terrible evening.
He is more direct in another: 33
Times when unbroken
Gloom is over all our world,
Over which still
Sits the ever-brilliant moon:
Sight of it casts me down more.
These times of unbroken gloom were now dominated by Minamoto no Yoritomo. The changes he put in place were to mark a new era in Japan’s history.
2.3 The Warrior State: The Kamakura Period (1185–1333)
In 1185 Minamoto no Yoritomo was the most powerful figure in the land. However, he neither sought the throne for himself or his descendants, nor tried to destroy it. Instead, he sought from the court legitimisation of his power through the title
seii tai-shgun
(‘barbarian-subduing great general’), generally abbreviated to
shgun
. 34 This was granted to him in 1192.
The particular nature of the relationship between legitimacy (formal authority) and actual power in Japan is an ongoing feature of the nation’s history and society. 35 Typically, a high authority does not wield a similarly high degree of actual power, but instead confers legitimacy – often in the form of some title, and often under pressure – on those who do hold actual power and claim to use it in the name of that higher authority. The fact that the higher authority is the guarantor of the power-holder’s legitimacy gives the higher authority too a certain guarantee of protection. The recipient of legitimacy may in turn confer legitimacy on those below them, and so on. It is in one sense a diffusion of responsibility, and in another a hierarchical ordering of authority. Yoritomo provides an especially clear example of the process.
Mainly because of this need for legitimacy – but also partly because it has long been a practice in Japan to maintain some degree of continuity with
The famine and pestilence that brought a temporary halt to the fighting were just part of a series of natural disasters during the last few years of the Heian period, adding to the man-made disasters of warfare. There was also, for example, a severe typhoon in 1180, a major earthquake in 1184, and a number of serious fires and floods around the same time. These events were described graphically in a work written some thirty years later by a retired priest, Kamo no Chmei (c.1155–1216). His
Hjki
(The Ten Foot Square Hut) of 1212 describes the famine and pestilence of 1181–82: 31
.… beggars filled the streets and their clamour was deafening. … Respectable citizens who ordinarily wore hats and shoes now went barefooted begging fromhouse to house. … And by the walls and in the highways you could see every-where the bodies of those who had died of starvation. And as there was none to take them away, a terrible stench filled the streets.
With the combination of natural disasters and the Genpei (Minamoto-Taira) War it must certainly have seemed to many that the world was being turned upside-down, and perhaps that the final phase of humankind predicted in
mapp
was indeed imminent.
The general gloom and melancholy of these troubled times is reflected in the world-weary poetry of Saigy(1118–90). An aristocrat and one-time imperial guard, who had met both Taira no Kiyomori and Minamoto no Yoritomo, Saigyrenounced the world to lead the life of a reclusive monk. One of his best-known poems speaks far more than its few lines: 32
In a tree standing
Beside a desolate field,
The voice of a dove
Calling its companions –
Lonely, terrible evening.
He is more direct in another: 33
Times when unbroken
Gloom is over all our world,
Over which still
Sits the ever-brilliant moon:
Sight of it casts me down more.
These times of unbroken gloom were now dominated by Minamoto no Yoritomo. The changes he put in place were to mark a new era in Japan’s history.
2.3 The Warrior State: The Kamakura Period (1185–1333)
In 1185 Minamoto no Yoritomo was the most powerful figure in the land. However, he neither sought the throne for himself or his descendants, nor tried to destroy it. Instead, he sought from the court legitimisation of his power through the title
seii tai-shgun
(‘barbarian-subduing great general’), generally abbreviated to
shgun
. 34 This was granted to him in 1192.
The particular nature of the relationship between legitimacy (formal authority) and actual power in Japan is an ongoing feature of the nation’s history and society. 35 Typically, a high authority does not wield a similarly high degree of actual power, but instead confers legitimacy – often in the form of some title, and often under pressure – on those who do hold actual power and claim to use it in the name of that higher authority. The fact that the higher authority is the guarantor of the power-holder’s legitimacy gives the higher authority too a certain guarantee of protection. The recipient of legitimacy may in turn confer legitimacy on those below them, and so on. It is in one sense a diffusion of responsibility, and in another a hierarchical ordering of authority. Yoritomo provides an especially clear example of the process.
Mainly because of this need for legitimacy – but also partly because it has long been a practice in Japan to maintain some degree of continuity with
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