Changes in Japan’s Government

• We’re going to talk about – foreign invasion– internal rebellion– unification – isolation

• What do you think these terms might mean??

Order Breaks Down

• For about 100 years the shoguns were able to keep order in Japan

• But, challenges to the shoguns’ power brought this order to an end

Challenges

• We’re going to talk about two challenges that led to the breakdown of the shoguns’ rule– Mongol Invasion– Rebellion in Japan

Mongol Invasion

• Remember the story “The Winds that Saved Japan?

• What happened when the Mongols tried to invade?

This map shows the Mongols retreating from Japan in 1281

Mongol Invasions

• Kublai Khan sent ships from China to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281

• Both times, the Mongol fleet was severely damaged by storms

Mongol Invasions

• Daimyo and Samurai got angry- they thought the shogun didn’t give them enough credit for the victories

Rebellion in Japan

• Do you remember what the emperor was doing while the shogun was running Japan??

• After the Mongol invasion, the emperor and the daimyos began to fight the shogun to gain control of the country

Rebellion in Japan

• By the 1400s, the shogun had lost control, the emperor was mostly powerless and the daimyo ruled much of Japan

• Daimyos controlled their own lands- made laws, collected taxes

• Now there was no powerful central ruler in Japan

Strong Leaders Take Over

• New local leaders fought each other to gain control of all of Japan in the 1500s

A Daimyo being transported by his servants and samurai

Strong Leaders Take Over

• We’re going to talk about how these new leaders– Unified Japan– Isolated Japan

Japan Unifies

• One local leader who fought for power was Oda Nobunaga

• Oda Nobunaga started to unify Japan, he gave his soldiers guns he bought from Portuguese traders

• With these new weapons he easily defeated his opponents

Japan Unifies

• After Oda died another leader took control of all of Japan

• Tokugawa Ieyasu conquered all of his enemies- the emperor made him shogun

Japan Unifies

• Tokugawa ruled from his capital at Edo

• This period is called the Tokugawa shogunate

• While the Tokugawa family ruled, Japan traded with other countries and let Christian missionaries live in Japan

Isolation

• Some shoguns feared contact with other countries would cause them to lose their power

• In the 1630s the ruling shogun closed Japan off from the rest of the world

Japan was isolated until the 1850s

Isolation

• Guns were banned to keep peasants from threatening the samurai armies

• The lack of contact with the outside world and less technology extended the samurai period in Japan to the 1800s

Questions

• What was the relationship between samurai and the daimyos?

Questions

• What was Bushido?

Questions

• Why did the samurai arrange flowers and practice Zen Buddhism?

Questions

• Who invaded Japan twice in the 1270s and 1280s?

• What happened both times?

Questions

• After he defeated all of his rivals, which local leader reunified Japan and became shogun?

Questions

• What was the main function of samurai in Japanese society?