JAPANESE CIVILIZATION

INTRODUCTION
 Japan consists of four large islands and
thousands of smaller ones
 Geography - It located on a plate
boundary of Volcanoes and earthquakes
 Topography is mountainous with 20%
farmable and most live on coast.
INTRODUCTION
 Island nation- protected from invasion.
 Culture very influenced by China & Korea.
 Adopted Chinese writing, calendar, clothing, etc.
 The architecture of Japan was derived from China,
but maintained its own special characteristics of
lightness as delicacy.
 Refinement in Japanese architecture is combined
with carving and decoration which is noticeable in
timber construction.
 Roof covering can be thatch, shingles or tiles.
 Column that found in temples or gateway is
followed from Chinese form.
FEUDALISM
 Nobles gave land to people below them to help
defend their entire territory.
 Land was donated to loyal followers.
 Eventually, one family took more power than
other nobles and the emperor.
 He was called the Shogun.
 Shogun was the military dictator.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
 Daimyos were large land-
owners and vassals of the
shogun.
 Samurai were fierce
warriors, but also wrote
poetry
RELIGION
 Shinto or kami-no-michi is the traditional
religion of Japan
 It meant ―way of gods‖
 Each clan worshiped own kami
(god/spirit)
 Kami found in natural objects (trees)
 People built shrines wherever felt the
power of kami
 Buddhism being the other major religion
started to flourish after 552 AD
JOMON DWELLINGS
JOMON DWELLINGS
 Jomon era begun about 10,000-8,000 B.C.
 Jomon hunter lived in caves or rock shelters like
people during the Paleolithic era
 Later they started to build and to live in pit
dwellings.
 There are 2 types of basic dwellings for the Jomon
 Pit-type dwelling – this consists of a shallow pit with
an earthen floor covered by a thatched roof’
 Circular dwelling – a round floor was made from
dried clay or stones, and covered with a roof.
 Some pit houses were small, others were larger
with thatched roofs supported by sturdy posts set
deep into the ground.
JOMON DWELLINGS
 The average settlement is oval shaped,
with the dwellings located in a circle or
semi-circle (sometimes called the
horseshoe shape).
 Central plaza space was designed for
creating a community space for group
tasks such as stone tool or pottery
manufacture and perhaps for village
meetings and ceremonies.
 Central plaza space in the middle of
many of the settlements was often also
the village cemetery.
 Roads that were sometimes paved led
from the pit dwellings through the village
and down to the sea or river.
JOMON DWELLINGS
 Pit houses floors was sunken into the subterranean earth level where the
earth's natural warmth made comfortable homes.
 Floors were often half meter below ground level and were usually just dirt
or earthen floors tamped hard.
 Jomon people built sturdier inner posts, usually five or six strong enough to
hold a roof over a square or rectangular floor with rounded corners.
 Kaya (Miscanthus) grass was used as roofing grass to keep the home dry, and
rainwater shed by the pitched roof drained off through surrounding ditches
 The 3.8 meter-long piece of wood had six circular joint holes in it about 3
centimeters in diameter and is thought to be a roof beam from a house built
on stilts.
 Storage pit is the most common characteristic that is noted of Jomon
settlements.
 Jomon people used wooden post cut as per required building size
 Later, many pit houses were raised and floors were covered in flagstones.
YAYOI DWELLINGS
 Yayoi period (400B.C.- 300A.D.), architectural
advances were made in buildings
 They built buildings that were raised above the
ground, with the buildings supported by six or
seven posts.
 This advanced type of architecture — was built
with wooden beams made of planks of a regular
shape, with floors, doors and slanted supporting
poles.
 Mortise and tenon method was used to join the
wooden beams. Mortise and tenon
method
YAYOI DWELLINGS
 The buildings had ladder to access the raised
floors, carved of a single piece of wood rather.
 Wooden discs were used as a protective devices
against rats & was attached to the posts just
under the floor as well as at the top of the
entrance ladder.
 Raised floor buildings are thought to have
functioned at first, mostly as warehouses or
storehouses.
 The other important feature was the buildings
had irimoya thatched roofs that flared out at the
sides
YAYOI DWELLINGS
 Flared roof style became the style for residences of
palaces, shaman leaders, chiefs and other elite tribal
members of society. Shape was rectangular with
rounded corners and measured 5-8 meters long
inside the bank and 8- 12 meters outside the bank so
that there was an oval living area within.
 There was a sunken fireplace at the center with four
posts round it sunk into the ground.
 Wooden plank was placed at the bottom of each
post-hole to prevent sinking.
 Beams connected the posts at the top with rafters
radiating from those beams to the ground.
 The roof was thatched with miscanthus or some
other grass.
YAYOI DWELLINGS
 As village settlements grew in size or became
more crowded, they were often fortified and were
erected in more strategic positions on higher
ground.
 Yayoi era tower was a two storey building built
using four main pillars of cedar wood and were 50
cm in diameter, used as watch tower.
 The tower had a thatched roof, held in place by
logs that look like the spokes of a wheel.
 The outer walls were made of wickerwork while
the inner walls were board-lined. Carved ladders
gave access to the tower.
KOFUN PERIOD – BURIAL MOUNDS
 The Kofun period is named after kofun — gigantic
earthen burial mounds (tumuli).
 There are about 30,000 kofun mound tombs in Japan.
 Built for important people and often surrounded by a
moat, they were built in different shapes — round,
square and keyhole-shaped.
 Inside tombs mirrors, swords, armor, earrings, bracelets,
equestrian gear, crowns, shoes, terra cotta figures, and
personal ornaments made from precious beads and
worked gold and copper are found.
 Earthenware cylinders, haniwa clay figures, and
sculptures, some as tall as 1½ meters, surrounded the
kofuns.
KEYHOLE TOMB
 The largest tombs were keyhole- shaped.
 Covered four or five acres.
 First appeared in the Yamato region of present-day
Nara Province in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries
A.D. and spread to northern Honshu and southern
Kyushu by the end of the 4th century.
 The shape was meant to looks like a horse's hoof.
Others reason the Kofun-era people experimented
with various shapes, and simply liked the ―keyhole-
shape‖.
 These are thought to be associated with the Imperial
Family.
KEYHOLE TOMB
 This keyhole-shaped tomb is 486 meters long, 305
meters wide at the widest point, and 35 meters high
at its highest point.
 The burials in the Early and Middle Kofun mounds
were place in the top of the mounds, usually in
stone-lined chambers entered from the top.
 Some burials had coffins of various types and others
have no trace of a coffin.
 Late Kofun chambers were usually set on the
ground under the mound and entered from the side
through a passageway .
 Yokoana chambers (passageway) were set in the
mound. A few such chambers have paintings on the
walls, such as the long-famous Takamatsuzuka Kofun
near Nara, or Kitora Kofun in the same area.
TUMULI/ BURIAL MOUNDS
 The tombs are exceptionally large (twice as
large as any tomb found in Korea);
 Tombs were all built in quick succession,
one after the other, in the Shiki area;
 It contain impressive coffins made of split
bamboo and pine and surrounded by lavish
grave goods
 Tombs contain large numbers of mirrors,
weapons, tools and ornaments. Religious
objects and pottery have also been found
on and around the mountain.