introduction:
Since the Heian period in Japan, the Kamakura period, represented by the samurai regime, has gradually opened the prelude to history. As we all know, the beginning of the Kamakura era also marked the arrival of the shogunate era, that is, the emperor's power fell by the wayside, and the military and political power of the dynasty were all controlled by the "Shogi Shogun".
The so-called "shogunate" is actually the place where the general Zhengyi works, which is different from the imperial palace. Beginning with the Kamakura shogunate, Japan went through two eras, the Muromachi shogunate and the Edo shogunate, until finally Tokugawa Keiki of the Edo shogunate returned power to the emperor, which ended the Japanese shogunate era that lasted for nearly seven hundred years.
It should be noted that although the Japanese shogunate era has lasted for a long time and the emperor has always been in the position of the mascot behind the scenes, no matter how much power is contested by various parties, even in the most chaotic Japanese Sengoku period, the Japanese emperor only has the idea of power falling by the side, and there is no claim that it has been replaced by the samurai regime. Therefore, the Japanese folk saying that the emperor is "one lineage of ten thousand generations" is not wrong if it is viewed from the perspective of the emperor's inheritance, but there is no shortage of exaggerated words.
Portrait of a Japanese shogun
As early as the Heian period before the rise of the samurai regime, Japan was influenced by the exchange and integration of Tang style and Japanese style, and gave birth to a cultural system with unique Japanese national characteristics, especially after the Nara period and the Heian period, the characteristics and connotations of Japanese culture were basically formed. Therefore, since the beginning of the Kamakura period, the cultural development of Japan after that has not been as dazzling as that of the Heian period. By the way,
The so-called Kamakura period refers to the victory of the Genrai Dynasty after the end of the Genpei War and the establishment of a shogunate in Kamakura (present-day Kamakura City), which also symbolizes the official entry of the samurai regime onto the stage of history.
So, leaving aside the smoke and strife of the Kaifu era, after the beginning of the Kamakura period, how did the culture accumulated in Japan since the Heian period change and develop?
If we look at the overall characteristics of the culture of that period, we can roughly summarize the culture of the Kamakura period into two points.
Japanese family coat of arms (family pattern) culture
The first is the rise of the family emblem culture, the so-called family emblem.
The production of the family emblem first appeared among the imperial court nobles, such as the emperor's family emblem is a sixteen-petal eight-fold chrysanthemum pattern, which is why Japan still has the "chrysanthemum taboo" saying, that is, it is not allowed to attack chrysanthemums in any form and language.
However, with the rise of the samurai class, in order to better fight the enemy and avoid accidentally injuring friendly troops, it gradually adopted and absorbed the form of nobles making family crests. Therefore, Japanese historians also generally regard the Kamakura period as the source of the development of the Japanese samurai family pattern, that is, the family emblem.
The reason for the emphasis on the emergence of the family emblem is because today, the family emblem has become an important branch of Japanese traditional culture and still has a great influence on today's Japan.
Incidentally, the "Battle of Genpei", which broke out at the end of the Heian period, also played a role in promoting the emergence and development of the family emblem.
The so-called "Battle of Yuanping" refers to the period when the two martial forces of the Yuanlai Dynasty and the Peaceful Qingsheng fought a decisive battle. However, because there was no family emblem at that time, the genji, which belonged to the folk, only wore a white flag during the battle, and because it was believed that the white flag represented purity and could make the gods attach to it, the white flag became a special symbol passed down from generation to generation by the Genji clan. In contrast, the Ping clan, which represents the side of the imperial court, uses the red flag as a symbol, implying enthusiasm and bravery.
While genrai led an army to conquer the Fujiwara clan in Oshu, and the army passed through Shimono Kuni Utsunomiya, the large army led by Takayoshi Satake successfully joined it. However, it should be noted that Satake Takayoshi was originally loyal to the Hei clan and was not a genji clan, but in the course of the battle, he also used the white flag as a symbol, which made gendai very dissatisfied. However, after all, Satake Takayoshi's surrender played a role in promoting the confrontation between Genji and Heishi, so after much consideration, Genrai Chao handed over a military fan with a bright moon tattooed to Satake Takayoshi and compared it to drawing a military flag.
Later, with the beginning of Satake Takayoshi's drawing of the military flag, other Genji people also followed suit, drawing different kinds of ornaments on the military flag to distinguish other forces. This vignette that took place during the Genpei Battle is often seen as the origin of the samurai family emblem.
But nonetheless, one thing to note is that
The birth of the martial culture is not "out of nothing", but a new branch that is gradually developed on the basis of the imperial court culture and absorbed on this basis. Although after the Kamakura period, due to the increasing influence of the samurai regime, the samurai culture also became an independent culture. However, in the early days of the Kamakura shogunate, the samurai culture did not yet have the characteristics of an independent culture.
As for the formation of the martial culture, it was because at that time the samurai regime had to maintain contact with the imperial court externally and manage the clan internally, so the Yuanlai Dynasty used many lower-level literati (referring to the imperial court clerks who were affected by war or life during that period). However, because this group of people had been loyal to the imperial court, they made indelible contributions in the service of the samurai regime, especially in the field of samurai etiquette.
For example, although the samurai class had long lived in rural areas, the annual mid-year behavior of the shogunate (that is, the various festivals held regularly throughout the year) did not have the characteristics of rural etiquette, but completely followed the etiquette of the imperial court nobility. This is due to the fact that at the beginning of the establishment of the samurai regime, in order to show its orthodoxy, it was necessary to use the etiquette of the imperial court to show prestige.
Therefore, after the confrontation between the shogunate and the imperial court began, the etiquette with unique characteristics of samurai culture gradually took shape. According to historians, the Kamakura shogunate's most distinctive "acting" activities were visited by shoguns as their patron saint, Tsuruoka Hachimangu Shrine (which exists in present-day Kamakura City). Since the samurai regime was originally composed of the samurai class, in the process of holding rituals, in addition to a few court ceremonies, some bows, horses, swords, and swords that showed the samurai's skills were also widely popular as sacrificial music and dance.
Monogatari literature is fascinating, and the military story is unique
So
As a literary development in the Kamakura period, it is also full of swords and light sword shadows, which is another characteristic of the culture under the Kamakura period, that is, the emergence of the "Military Chronicle Story" of the Kamakura period.
As I mentioned earlier, the monogatari literature that appeared in the Heian period is represented by The Tale of Genji in the Purple Style. After the opening of the Kamakura period, under the premise of maintaining the cultural characteristics of the Heian period, the samurai culture was appropriately integrated into it, and in addition to the advent of monogatari literature such as "Uji Collection Story" and "Tale of Present and Past Things", the "Military Chronicle Story" with the theme of depicting war also began to appear one after another.
The so-called "Military Tale of Things" refers to the fact that in this type of monogatari literature, the protagonists are often samurai, and the content is mainly based on the "Mutsu Tales" and "Shomon Chronicles" that record the yuanping hehezhan and the "Tale of Pingzhi Monogatari" and "Baoyuan Monogatari" that record the chaos of Baoyuan and the chaos of Pingzhi, until the final appearance of "Pingjia Monogatari", which is another peak in the literary aspects of the monogatari literature.
However, many scholars believe that "The Tale of Pingjia" as a whole does not belong to the category of military chronicles, because military chronicles are mainly about describing wars, and the style of writing tends to be realistic. However, the style of "The Tale of the Pingjia Story" focuses on lyricism, and records many love stories in large-scale texts, and even breaks the convention of military story, highlights the existence of women, gives the original courageous and brave samurai a sentimental feeling, and vigorously portrays and renders the love of children. Therefore, the style of "The Tale of The Tale of The Pingjia" is mainly sad, which is an important feature of Japanese literature.
The reason why the Japanese academic community has such a high evaluation of "The Tale of Pingjia" is because the author uses the narrative of the rise and fall of the Pingshi as the background to expound the principle that the impermanence of the various acts and the prosperity of the prosperous will decline (the opening poem of the "Tale of the Pingjia Story" is: the bell of the Gion Jingsha, the ringing of the impermanence of the various lines; the flower color of the double tree, the principle that the flourisher will decline), and also occupies a place in the hall of world literary history.
In addition, the biggest artistic achievement of "The Tale of The Pingjia Story" is to create a heroic character that is different from dynasty literature, marking the separation of Japanese classical literature from dynasty literature and opening up a new literary tradition.
summary:
All in all
In the Kamakura period, as the beginning of the Japanese shogunate era, whether it was the family emblem culture that highlighted the honor concept of the samurai family, or the military chronicle monogatari with the theme of describing military wars, it was full of samurai regimes, which not only had a profound impact on the cultural development of Japan after that, but also laid a good foundation for the formation of the spirit of Bushido.