Japan: The Origin of Japanese Culture
Does Japanese culture have its own roots? The answer is yes. Although Japanese culture has always used foreign culture as a medium in its formation and development, it still has its own roots. Japanese culture is like a tree, its roots are deeply rooted in the customs of Japan. If we look into its origins, it can be traced back to the Jomon period, which was thousands of years ago. "The Jomon culture, the later Yayoi culture, and the Kofun culture are the three periods of Japan's original culture."
Japanese history begins with the emergence of stone tools, and the Jomon period is Japan's Stone Age. The pottery from that period excavated by archaeologists has colorful straw rope shapes on its surface, which is historically known as Corded pottery. Jomon pottery has a long history, and its appearance has become increasingly complex and its patterns increasingly colorful, indicating the maturity of pottery technology and the development of stone tool processing at that time. Although Japan was already in the Neolithic Age at that time, the advanced culture of Eurasia was unable to enter Japan due to its geographical location. The Jomon people live in hard caves and still make a living by fishing, hunting, and gathering, without knowing anything about farming. The lagging productivity also caused the society at that time to stay in the matrilineal clan commune stage. Witchcraft dominates people's primitive social life and also dominates people's spiritual life.
From about the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD, Japanese history entered the Yayoi period. Archaeologists unearthed new types of pottery with different Jomon pottery in Yayoi Town, Bunkyo District, Tokyo. It was known as Yayoi pottery and Yayoi culture in history. Yayoi pottery has simple shapes and less complicated patterns. It is very different from Jomon pottery and reflects a new aesthetic taste. It is generally believed that Yayoi pottery was imported from overseas, that is, people who immigrated from the mainland may have brought new Yayoi culture with them. Although the new culture defeated the original Jomon culture and became the mainstream of Japanese culture, the outsiders were eventually assimilated by the indigenous residents, and the Japanese nation was not discontinued. Productivity greatly improved during the Yayoi period. This was because advanced continental civilization was spread to Japan via the Korean Peninsula, prompting Japan to quickly enter a farming society dominated by a rice farming economy, and the Stone Age entered the Iron Age. The Yayoi people engaged in farming, growing food, and working together gradually formed large villages. The patriarchal social system replaced the matrilineal system, and class differences and political dominance relationships gradually formed. At that time, nature worship and witchcraft superstition still dominated people's spiritual life, especially the prevalence of farming and sacrificial activities, which became a major feature of Yayoi culture.
From the 3rd and 4th centuries to the 6th and 7th centuries AD, with Kinai as the center, many Takatsuka tumuli, represented by the front and back round tombs, were built across the country, marking Japan's transition from the Yayoi culture to the tumulus culture. era. The construction of ancient tombs requires the recruitment of a large number of laborers, and exquisite crafts such as mirrors, swords, and magatama are buried in the tombs, which symbolizes that the deceased had great power during his lifetime. This is in stark contrast to the simple burials of ordinary people after their deaths, indicating that a strong autocratic centralization has been formed, that is, the Yamato Kingdom centered on Kinai finally unified Japan in the early 5th century. During this period, Japan not only continuously imported material civilization from the mainland, but also began to import the spiritual civilization of the mainland. On the one hand, the Han and Koreans who immigrated to Japan, the so-called "naturalized people", began to use Chinese characters to record events. On the other hand, Chinese knowledge of yin and yang, astronomy and other things were introduced to Japan. By the 6th century, Confucian classics and Buddhism were also introduced to Japan via the Korean Peninsula, opening the prelude to Japanese spiritual culture.
It can be seen from the above that the germination and formation of Japan's original culture went through a long historical period. Judging from the research on the Jomon, Yayoi and Kofun cultures so far, the original Japanese culture was produced by the Japanese in the primitive society in the struggle with external nature and in the process of seeking and enriching their own material life. Once the island nation of Japan After getting in touch with the outside world, advanced foreign culture was immediately introduced and became the growth hormone of Japanese culture. Secondly, in terms of spiritual culture, witchcraft and sacrifice dominated the social life of Japanese people in primitive society. This primitive belief provided the basis for the formation of Japan’s national religion, Shintoism. Thirdly, the formation of Japan’s primitive culture is closely related to the Japanese nation and country. The formation of is almost synchronous, and the two are closely related and inseparable.
That is, with the Yamato region as the center, various ethnic groups were integrated to form the "Yamato Nation"; the "Yamato Kingdom" finally unified "more than a hundred countries" and established the emperor's country.
After Yamato unified Japan, it not only absorbed China’s advanced production technology, but also began to absorb China’s political system, especially during the reform process of the Suiko Dynasty (554-628), with Prince Shotoku (574-662) ) led by the reformists carefully studied Chinese classics and absorbed various advanced ideas and cultures introduced from China and North Korea. In particular, the 17-Article Constitution formulated by Prince Shotoku incorporated Chinese law, Confucianism, Mohism, and Buddhism. and other ideas, formulated based on the specific conditions of Japan. During the Daika Reform (646), Emperor Kotoku (587-654) modeled the official system of the Tang Dynasty on a comprehensive reform of the political system, thereby advancing Japanese society into a centralized feudal state with a complete legal system. From the 7th century to the mid-19th century, it was the historical period of Japan's feudal society, which went through Asuka (593-710), Nara (710-794), Heian (794-1192), Kamakura (1192-1333), Muromachi (1333) -1573, including the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Warring States Period), Amuro Momoyama (1573-1603), Edo (1603-1868) and other eras.
The Japanese culture of the early feudal society (Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods) was concentratedly reflected in the Hakuho, Tenpei culture, and Heian culture. The so-called Hakuho culture refers to the culture from the Taika Revolution to the Nara period, and the Tenpyo culture generally refers to the culture of the entire Nara period. During this period, Japan took the initiative to establish a close relationship with the Sui and Tang Dynasties and actively absorbed the culture of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, especially the Tang Dynasty, which effectively promoted the development of Japanese culture. After Buddhism was introduced, it was used by the imperial court, protected by the imperial court, and even became the state religion. Buddhist art, represented by Nara Yakushiji Temple, became a major spectacle in the cultural history of Japan at that time. In addition, on the basis of using Chinese characters to record events, Japan borrowed the sounds and meanings of Chinese characters to mark the sound and harmony of Japanese, created "Man'yo Kana", and used it to create the collection of Waka "Man'yoshu". At this point, Japan ended its history of having only language but no writing. This was an epoch-making event in the history of Japanese culture. With the advent of kana, Japanese literature gradually became mainstream. Architecture and sculpture, painting and music, calligraphy and tea ceremony, etc., also all exhibit "Japanese style", showing the unique characteristics of Japanese culture.
Japanese culture in the middle feudal society (Kamakura and Muromachi periods) was characterized by samurai culture. Samurai, originally meant to be those who learn martial arts and wield military power. It appeared as a new class in Japan after the mid-9th century. At that time, as the manor became stronger, private armed forces, called samurai groups, were formed in order to suppress the peasants, fight against the government officials, and protect the interests of the manor. The establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate marked that the samurai regime, with samurai as the ruling class, had become the actual force that dominated Japan. When the Kamakura shogunate declined, the imperial court tried unsuccessfully to regain power, and the Muromachi shogunate came to power. Compared with aristocratic culture centered on the court, samurai culture tended to be popular and included many new popular cultural factors. As far as the samurai class itself is concerned, the human ethics formed in the principle of interpersonal relationships based on the master-servant contract have both the inhuman side of trampling on living beings and the new moral vitality of loyalty to the master; the morality of fifty also It varies from era to era and must be analyzed concretely. Samurai literature based on the military life of samurai, the popularity of Zen Buddhism that matched the mentality of samurai, and the emergence of various theoretical works were all new features in the history of Japanese culture during this period.
Japanese culture in the late feudal society (Amuro Momoyama, Edo period), that is, the culture of the Edo period (also known as the Tokugawa period). The Edo period lasted for more than 260 years, and was a period of maturity and collapse of Japanese feudal society. Due to long-term social stability, economic prosperity, and a period of isolation, pre-modern Japanese culture was extremely prosperous and mature. In summary, the main trends in Edo culture are as follows: First, Chinese Confucianism, especially Zhu Xixue, gained a dominant position and became the official ideology, promoting the development of Japanese spiritual culture. Secondly, it has the creation and prosperity of Japan's unique ideological and cultural culture. Third, the acceptance and study of Western culture.
The founding of the country and Meiji culture
In the late Tokugawa period (1845-1867), Japan faced both a national crisis and a feudal crisis. From the mid-18th century, European and American powers began to peek at Japan. In 1854, Perry led the U.S. fleet to knock on the border for the second time, forcing Japan to sign the "Japan-U.S. Friendship Treaty", and Japan's door was opened; the subsequent "Ansei Five-Nation Treaty" ended more than 200 years of seclusion and brought Japan to the outside world. Being placed in a semi-colonial status deepened the national crisis of being fully colonized. At the same time, various domestic class conflicts intensified after the opening of Hong Kong, and the struggle against the shogunate's autocracy rose under the banner of "respecting the king and rejecting the barbarians." Although the shogunate made some reforms and tried to get rid of internal and external crises, the feudal shogunate system collapsed in 1868 due to the terminal illness, and the Meiji government was established. Since then, Japan has opened a new chapter in its modern history.
The Meiji Era (1868-1912) was the era when Japanese capitalism was formed, developed and moved toward imperialism. It was also the turn-of-the-century era when Japan entered the 20th century from the 19th century. From the perspective of cultural history, Meiji culture must provide a basis for the new government in the early Meiji period to establish a modern capitalist state system, and also serve the subsequent capitalist modernization construction; on the other hand, Japanese culture must complete its own transformation and develop the development of culture itself. Generally speaking, Meiji culture has generally gone through three stages: enlightenment and westernization, criticism and reflection, compromise and creation.
In the early Meiji period, the new government, which had just emerged from the feudal system, proposed three major policies: civilizing the country, promoting industry, and enriching the country and strengthening the army in order to achieve a complete transformation to capitalism. Civilization means the liberation of the past modern society and the modernization of capitalism. At that time, Japan had realized that it must absorb not only the material civilization of the West, but also its spiritual civilization. Enlightenment thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi, who is known as a famous national teacher, said: "Civilization has two aspects, namely external things and inner spirit." The appearance of civilization is easy to obtain, but the spirit of civilization is difficult to find. Therefore, he proposed a model of realizing modern civilization in Japan by "first reforming people's hearts, then reforming government decrees, and finally reaching tangible materials." Therefore, with the "Mei Liushe" as the center, a group of promising intellectuals set off an ideological During the Enlightenment, the tide of Westernization hit the Japanese archipelago, rippling into every aspect and corner of society, and shocking the hearts of the Japanese. However, after the tide of Westernization cooled down, the nationalists came back and tried. Negating the achievements of the Enlightenment and resurrecting the tradition, while criticizing the countercurrent of retrogression and affirming the general direction of civilization and enlightenment, knowledgeable people also reflected on the chaos in the ideological and cultural circles in the early days, and explored the use of imported Western culture as a medium according to the needs of Japan's modern social development. The path to creating modern Japanese culture. It can be said that the culture of the late Meiji period has completed its modern transformation, and has explored a unique path for the development of modern Japanese culture through the flow, collision and integration with Western culture.
The short-lived Taisho culture
The Taisho era (1912-1926) was a short and relatively stable period. The fundamental characteristic of this era was that the trend of Taisho democracy swept across all fields of culture since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. After the Russo-Japanese War, during the rapid development of Japanese monopoly capital, a new middle class, the middle class, was gradually formed, both in cities and in rural areas. This class politically opposed the warlord and bureaucratic autocracy at that time and demanded the realization of the dictatorship of the warlords and bureaucracies. Party politics, the implementation of universal suffrage, thus forming the Taisho democratic movement. The Taisho culture produced under the background of this era has distinct modernity, advocating the establishment of modern self, promoting individualism and rationalism, and becoming the keynote of Taisho culture.
The core of Taisho democratic thought is democracy. Yoshino Sakuza, a theoretical representative who advocates democracy, believes that the ultimate basis for the operation of political power lies in the people, and the final decision-making should also be based on the people's intentions. Yoshino's political thought. Although he recognized the imperial system, he advocated the realization of a true constitutional monarchy, that is, restricting warlords and bureaucratic autocracy, and expanding the power of parliament. Judging from the historical conditions at that time, Yoshino's thoughts undoubtedly had positive and progressive significance in democracy. Under the trend of the times, the philosophy and social sciences of the Taisho period also showed a new look.
The idealistic philosophy of the Neo-Kantian school spread to the entire intellectual world. As the Japanese version of the Neo-Kantian school, culturalism, personalism, and nurturance were all the rage in the ideological world. While culturalism affirms cultural value, it also emphasizes human subjectivity, which gives rise to the trend of personalism, which regards personality value as the only ethical value. Iwanami Shoten, which contributed to Taisho culture, published many new books and launched a philosophy series from 1915 to 1917 to promote idealistic philosophy, which was called "Iwanami culture". In addition, historian Tsuda Sōyoshi's rationalist interpretation of ancient Japanese history and folklorist Yanagida Kunio's research on the lives of common people that had not been touched upon by predecessors have effectively promoted the development of Taisho social science research.
During the Taisho period, if political thought was represented by people-centeredism and philosophy was represented by the idealism of the Neo-Kantian school, then in the field of literature, the "White Birch" school was represented. A group of young writers led by Takeshikoji Sanetsu founded the literary magazine Shirakaba in April 1910, forming the influential literary school Shirakaba. In the 13 years until the publication ceased in 1923 (Taisho 12th year), this school held high the banner of new idealism, carried out active literary activities, and occupied the mainstream position in the Taisho literary world. They were dissatisfied with the declining naturalistic literature, advocated "playing the role of human will through individuals or personalities", and regarded "respecting the will of nature and human will, and exploring how individuals should live" as the goal of this school of literature. Guided by this idea, they created many works with rich content and novel forms, and nurtured many well-known writers. The White Birch Movement also went beyond the literary world and had a broad and profound impact in the education sector and even society. During this period, cultural fields such as drama, art, and music all showed a new look that was different from Meiji culture.
The Taisho culture was fresh and prosperous. However, the Taisho era disappeared in a hurry before it even started, and the short-lived Taisho culture also came to an end.
The ups and downs of early Showa culture
The Showa era (1926-1989) began at the beginning of this century and ended at the end of this century, lasting 63 years. It can be said to be the only representative period in modern Japanese history. An important historical period with the changes and characteristics of the 20th century. Undoubtedly, this change and characteristic has been fully reflected in the history of Showa culture.
In the early Showa era, with the turmoil and changes in Japanese society, Japanese culture also wrote its own history in the contest between light and darkness, progress and regression. In the 1920s, proletarian culture was born, and various literary and artistic groups were formed, such as the "Japanese Proletarian Literary and Art Alliance". In December 1928, the "All-Japan Proletarian Art Group Council" was newly formed. In 1931, the association was expanded to the "All-Japan Proletarian Cultural Association". Alliance", founded the magazine "Proletarian Culture", and guided the proletarian cultural movement. "The Crab Boater" by writer Kobayashi Takiji and "Street Without Sun" by Tokunaga Nao are excellent works describing the life of the proletariat. The left-wing troupe staged progressive plays such as "My Eyes Are Still Slaves", "The Tempest" and "The Furious Waves". After the "July 7th Incident", they still continued to perform plays that exposed the darkness of society, such as "The Naked Street" and "Forever Forward". . While the Art Alliance holds mass art exhibitions, it also delivers works to the masses. Thinkers formed the "Materialist Research Association" to promote Marxist theory and launch a theoretical struggle against fascism from a philosophical perspective. Excellent Marxist philosophers such as Hajime Kawakami, Jun Tosaka, and Hiroshi Nagata emerged.
As mentioned above, the early Showa era was the period when Japan accelerated its imperialist fascism and launched foreign aggressive wars until its failure; in the ideological and cultural fields, nationalism, supranationalism and Japanism gradually an era in which it emerges and then takes over a dominant position. After the September 18th Incident, the Japanese government established the "National Spiritual Culture Research Institute" in 1932 as a "national policy"; in 1934, the Ministry of Military Affairs declared in "The True Significance of National Defense and Proposals for Strengthening National Defense" that "war is the father of creation. "Mother of Culture"; in 1935, the House of Representatives passed the resolution of "Kokutai Mingzheng", and in 1940, the "Commemoration of the 2600th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" was held to emphasize the "Japanese spirit" and promote the ideology of "Imperial Doctrine".
Under the promotion of the government, the cultural circles organized various fascist literary and art groups to promote "war literature" and "patriot culture"; the ideological circles also swarmed in, advocating Japanese spiritualism and advocating a return to Japan. From 1933 to 1935, Shinchosha published a twelve-volume series of lectures on Japanese spirituality, in an attempt to rebuild Japanese studies under the imperial consciousness, and to cure the country's cancer by re-taste and understanding the Japanese spirit and culture that had long been neglected. Right-wing philosophers of the Kyoto School advocate "philosophy of world history" and "philosophy of war" to make philosophical arguments for Japan's foreign aggressive wars; even more, such as Okawa Shuaki and Kita Ikki, etc. openly concocted Japanese-style fascist theories, directly Provide theoretical basis for the government to implement fascist militarism.
While advocating and promoting fascist culture, the government also continuously strengthens ideological rule, suppresses all progressive culture, and persecutes all progressive cultural figures. As for Marxism, it was completely banned, and the "Materialist Research Society" was banned in 1939. Marxist scholars such as Hajime Kawakami, Jun Tosaka, and Hiroshi Nagata were successively arrested and imprisoned, and some were persecuted to death in prison. Faced with the powerful rule of fascist militarism, a small number of intellectuals made compromises and even rebelled in frustration.
At this point, pre-war Japanese culture completely lost its vitality and was swallowed up by the bloody war of aggression.
The prosperity and confusion of Japanese culture after the war
After the war, Japan’s social stability and sustained economic development created conditions for the overall prosperity of culture. The most important characteristic of it is the development of life culture, material culture and its popularization phenomenon. This is because the freedom of thought and speech was expanded after the war and was guaranteed by the system; the expansion of labor power and the improvement of living standards after the war also became opportunities for the prosperity of popular culture. The popular characteristics of post-war Japanese culture are mainly reflected in: ⒈ Various cultural groups and cultural clubs among workers have emerged one after another and carried out active activities; ⒉ The resurrection of old cultural forms; ⒊ The inflow of overseas culture; ⒋ Popular culture and high-end culture fusion. The social role of the popularization of culture is dual. On the one hand, it improves the subject quality of the public as the masters of society, allowing them to play a more important role in social and economic development; on the other hand, it leads to the commercialization of culture, making People's one-sided pursuit of cultural consumption value has led to a sharp decline in creative enthusiasm and the proliferation of decadent culture. In other words, while Japanese culture has prospered after the war, a negative phenomenon has emerged that cannot be ignored, namely cultural decadence and stagnation.
Heisei Culture
In 1989, Emperor Hirohito passed away and Crown Prince Akihito ascended the throne, with the reign name Heisei. The last decade of the last century was a decade of drastic changes in the world structure. After the end of the Cold War, the world was developing toward multipolarity. Countries around the world, including Japan, were working hard to establish a new international political and economic order. The new international environment also has an impact on Japanese culture. Japanese culture, which is known for absorbing diverse cultures, will become more prosperous in the process of integrating itself into world culture.