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World History > Japanese History

Jomon Period (c16,000 BC-c300 BC)

660-585 BC - Supposed reign of first emperor Jimmu.

Yayoi Period (c300 BC-c250 AD)

c300 BC - Wet rice cultivation is introduced to Japan.
4 BC - Ise Shrine is said to have been founded, although it was most likely founded about two centuries later.
239 - Queen Pimiko of the kingdom of "Yamatai" sends an embassy to the Chinese kingdom of Wei.
248 - Queen Pimiko dies, and is buried in what may have been one of the first kofun (massive earthen tombs).

Kofun Period (c250-552)

Asuka Period (552-710)

552 - Traditional date for the introduction of Buddhism to Japan
593 - Prince Shotoku is appointed regent by Empress Suiko.
604 - Prince Shotoku promulgates his Seventeen Article Constitution.
645 - Prince Naka and Nakatomi Katamari overthrow the Soga in the Taika Coup
646 - The Taika Reform Edict establishes a centralized Imperial state along Chinese-Confucian lines.
668 - The Omi Code codifies the reforms of Emperor Tenji.
672 - In the Jinshin War, Prince Oama defeats Prince Otomo to gain the throne, becoming Emperor Temmu.
701 - The Taiho Code codifies the reforms of Emperor Temmu.

Nara Period (710-794)

712 - Kojiki
720 - Nihon Shoki (Nihongi)
723 - In an effort to increase tax revenues, the Imperial government passes the Laws of Three Generations or a Lifetime (三世一身法), recognizing private ownership of reclaimed land for the first time and paving the way for the growth of the shoen system of private estates.
741 - Emperor Shomu orders the construction of two state Buddhist temples in every province.
742 - The Permanent Cropland Privatization Law (墾田永年私財法) makes the privatization of reclaimed land permanent, laying the legal foundation for the shoen system of private estates.
752 - Emperor Shomu dedicates his great temple at Todaiji.
759 - The Manyoshu is the earliest anthology of Japanese poetry.
764-770 - Buddhist monk Dokyo dominates court politics via his influence over Empress Shotoku.
788 - Saicho establishes the temple of Enryakuji on Mount Hiei.

Heian Period (794-1185)
>>Heian period architecture
>>Heian period attitudes towards food
>>Heian clothing

794 - Emperor Kammu moves the capital to Heiankyo.
805 - Saicho founds the Tendai sect of Buddhism.
816 - Kukai founds the Shingon sect of Buddhism.
858 - Fujiwara Yoshifusa becomes the first regent who is not a member of the Imperial family, establishing Fujiwara dominance over national affairs.
880 - Fujiwara Mototsune has himself named the first Kampaku (regent for an adult emperor), strengthening Fujiwara control over the throne.
889 - Imperial prince Takamochi is granted the surname Taira, establishing the Taira Clan.
939-940 - Revolt of Taira Masakado.
961 - Imperial prince Tsunemoto is granted the surname Minamoto, establishing the Minamoto Clan.
1004-1011 - The Tale of Genji is composed by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.
1016 - Fujiwara Michinaga becomes Kampaku.
1051-1062 - Minamoto Yoriyoshi defeats Abe no Yoritoki in the Earlier Nine Years War.
1068 - Emperor Go-Sanjo acceeds to the throne without a regent, weakening Fujiwara authority.
1086 - Emperor Shirakawa abdicates, initiating the Insei system of rule by retired emperors.
1083-1087 - Minamoto Yoshiie destroys the Kiyowara clan in the Later Three Years War.
1156 - The Hogen Incident heralds Taira Kiyomori's rise to power as the Minamoto clan is all but destroyed.
1159 - The Heiji Incident secures Taira Kiyomori's dominance of the Heian court.
1175 - Honen founds the Jodo sect of Pure Land Buddhism.
1180-1185 - The Gempei War pits the Taira and Minamoto clans for dominance of Japanese politics.
1185 - The Minamoto triumph at the Battle of Dannoura ends the Gempei War.
1189 - Minamoto Yoshitsune is forced into suicide.
1191 - Eisai, founder of the Rinzai sect of Buddhism, returns from China and begins to advocate Zen principles.

Kamakura Period (1192-1333)

1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo is named shogun, and establishes the Kamakura bakufu.
1199 - Minamoto Yoritomo dies. Real power over Japan falls into the hands of the Hojo clan.
1203 - The Hojo legitimize their power by establishing the office of shikken (shogunal regent).
1221 - Jokyu Incident
1224 - Shinran founds the Jodo Shin sect of Pure Land Buddhism.
1227 - Dogen founds the Soto Zen sect of Zen Buddhism.
1253 - Nichiren founds Nichiren Buddhism.
1274 - In the first Mongol Invasion of Japan, Chinese emperor Kublai Khan sends 40,000 troops to conquer Japan. They are turned back by bad weather after destroying a few villages.
1281 - The second Mongol Invasion of Japan, 142,000 troops strong, is thwarted by the great Kamikaze.
1324 - The Shochu Conspiracy against the Kamakura bakufu is discovered, thwarting the first attempt to restore power to Emperor Go-Daigo.
1331 - In the Genko Incident, Emperor Go-Daigo's second attempt to wrest power from the bakufu fails.
1332 - Go-Daigo is exiled to Oki.

Kemmu Restoration (1333-1336)

1333 - Warlords fighting in the name of Emperor Go-Daigo overthrow the Kamakura bakufu, initiating the Kemmu Restoration.
1336 - Ashikaga Takauji defeats imperial loyalists Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada at the Battle of Minatogawa, ending the Kemmu Restoration.

Muromachi Period (1336-1573)
>>Nambokucho Period (1336-1392)
>>Sengoku Period (1467-1573)

1337 - Go-Daigo takes refuge at Mount Yoshino, where he establishes a "Southern Court" in rivalry with the "Northern Court" backed by the ascendant Ashikaga.
1338 - Ashikaga Takauji named shogun, establishing the Ashikaga shogunate.
1392 - A compromise reunites the Northern and Southern Courts.
1441 - The shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori is assassinated by Akamatsu Mitsusuke
1467-1477 - The Onin War rages as leagues of shugo battle for control of Kyoto.
1542 - The first Portugese traders and Jesuit missionaries arrive in Kyushu.
1553 - Takeda Shingen faces Uesugi Kenshin in the first of their five battles at Kawanakajima.
1560 - Oda Nobunaga begins his rise to power by defeating Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama
1561 - Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin batter each other in the fourth and bloodiest Battle of Kawanakajima.
1568 - Oda Nobunaga enters Kyoto as kingmaker and installs Ashikaga Yoshiaki as shogun.
1571 - Oda Nobunaga destroys the Enryakuji temple on Mount Hiei.

Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573-1603)

1573 - Oda Nobunaga abolishes the Ashikaga shogunate.
1575 - Oda Nobunaga breaks the power of the Takeda clan at the Battle Nagashino.
1576 - Oda Nobunaga completes his massive castle at Azuchi.
1580 - Oda Nobunaga eliminates the Ikko Ikki by destroying the last of their great temple-fortresses, the Ishiyama Honganji.
1582 - Akechi Mitsuhide assassinates Oda Nobunaga at Honnoji. Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki and becomes master of Japan.
1583 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi secures his control of Japan by defeating Shibata Katsuie at the Battle of Shizugatake.
1585 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi is named kampaku, but cannot become shogun due to his low birth.
1588 - In the "Sword Hunt," Toyotomi Hideyoshi bans peasants from possessing weapons, thus preventing anyone from repeating his route to power.
1592-1598 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi launches two unsuccessful invasions of Korea.
1598 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi dies. Five regents, including Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari, are named to rule for Hideyoshi's infant son Toyotomi Hideyori.
1600 - Tokugawa Ieyasu ensures his hegemony by defeating Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara.

Edo Period (1603-1868)

1603 - Tokugawa Ieyasu named shogun.
1609 - The Shimazu clan of Satsuma conquers the Ryukyu Islands.
1615 - Last resistence to Tokugawa authority crushed at siege of Osaka Castle. Toyotomi Hideyori suicides. Tokugawa Ieyasu dies.
1635 - The hostage system of sankin kotai (alternate attendance) is introduced to keep the daimyo in line.
1636 - Japanese are forbidden to leave the country and those abroad are no longer allowed to return.
1637-1638 - Shimabara Uprising
1639 - The Portuguese are expelled from Japan. The construction of large ocean-going ships is banned.
1657 - The Great Meireki Fire ravages Edo, killing more than 100,000.
1688-1704 - The Genroku Era marks a time of peace and a flowering of culture.
1702 - Vendetta of the 47 Ronin
1707 - Last eruption of Mount Fuji.
1732 - A leafhopper plague leads to the Kyoho Famine in southwestern Japan.
1782-1787 - Tenmei Famine
1833-1836 - The Tempo Famine kills an estimated 300,000.
1837 - Rebellion of Oshio Heihachiro
1853 - Commodore Matthew Perry sails a fleet of four US warships into Tokyo Bay, initiating the opening of Japan.
1854 - Treaty of Kanagawa
1855 - Great Ansei Earthquake
1858 - Ii Naosuke is named Grand Chancellor (tairô) and initiates the Ansei Purge.
1860 - Ii Naosuke is assassinated by Mito seclusionists, further weakening the shogunate.
1862 - Namamugi Incident
1863 - British bombardment of Kagoshima
1864 - Mito Civil War, bombardment of Shimonoseki.
1866 - Satsuma and Choshu conclude a secret alliance for the purpose of overthrowing the Tokugawa shogunate.

Meiji Period (1868-1912)
>>Meiji oligarchs

1868 - Meiji Restoration, Boshin War
1870 - Commoners are allowed to take surnames.
1871 - Feudalism abolished, Iwakura Mission
1872 - A judgement against a Peruvian slave-trader in the María Luz Incident strikes a blow in favor of the Japanese against the unequal treaty system and leads to a law emancipating burakumin and bonded prostitutes.
1873 - National Conscription replaces the samurai with a national army of commoners.
1874 - Japan invades Formosa.
1876 - Japan opens Korea. The Haitorei edict abolishes the wearing of swords.
1877 - Satsuma Rebellion
1881 - In response to the Popular Rights Movement, an Imperial Edict promises the establishment of a constitution and national assembly within a decade.
1885 - Cabinet government established.
1889 - Meiji Constitution promulgated
1890 - Imperial Rescript on Education
1894-1895 - Japan defeats China in the first Sino-Japanese War.
1895 - Japan annexes Formosa.
1902 - Anglo-Japan Alliance
1904-1905 - Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese War
1905 - The Hibiya Riot rocks Tokyo.
1910 - Japan annexes Korea.
1911 - High Treason Incident (Taigyaku jiken)
1912 - The Meiji Emperor dies. General Nogi commits junshi.

Taisho Period (1912-1926)
>>Taisho Democracy

1914-1918 - Japan joins the Allied Powers in World War I, seizing several German islands in the Pacific.
1915 - Japan issues Twenty-one Demands designed to reduce China to colonial status.
1918 - Rice riots break out nationwide.
1918-1922 - Japanese Intervention in Siberia
1921 - Assassination of Hara Kei
1923 - The Great Kanto Earthquake levels Tokyo and Yokohama and kills 140,000 people.
1925 - Peace Preservation Law, universal manhood suffrage.

Showa Period (1926-1989)

1930 - Assassination of Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi
1931 - The Mukden Incident serves as a pretext for a Japanese invasion of Manchuria that leads to the formation of the puppet-state of Manchukuo.
1932 - A wave of terrorist attacks by right-wing ultranationalists, including the assassinations of Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyohi and Mitsui leader Dan Takuma, pave the way for the lapse of party government and a return to military-bureaucratic rule.
1933 - Japan withdraws from the League of Nations.
1936 - In the "February 26 Incident," 1400 junior military officers storm the Diet and attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Okada Keisuke, before being suppressed by a joint Army-Navy operation. The ensuing state of martial law puts Japan even more squarely on a path of militarism.
1937 - In response to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Japanese Kwantung Army invades China proper, initiating the second Sino-Japanese War. Japanese warplanes sink the USS Panay.
1940 - Japan invades Indochina and joins the Axis Powers. The Konoe government declares the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
1941 - Japanese forces attack US forces and installations at Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II.
1942 - The Japanese advance is checked at the Battle of Midway. Japanese power in the Pacific begins to wane.
1944 - The Japanese high command authorizes the formation of tokkotai (kamikaze) units.
1945 - The United States drops Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders, ending World War II.
1945-1952 - Allied Occupation of Japan
1947 - Douglas MacArthur halts a planned nationwide General Strike intended to oust conservative prime minister Yoshida Shigeru, signaling a "Reverse Course" in what was a formerly pro-labor occupation policy. The new Japanese Constitution takes effect, outlawing war and stripping the Emperor of all political powers.
1950 - At the behest of American occupation authorities, the Yoshida government conducts a sweeping Red Purge, removing over 10,000 alleged communists from key industry and labor posts.
1951 - The San Francisco Peace Treaty returns sovereignty to Japan, while the US-Japan Security Treaty binds Japan to support US Cold War interests.
1954 - Japan Self Defense Forces established. Lucky Dragon Incident.
1955 - The conservative Liberal and Democratic Parties unite to form the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
1956 - Japan is admitted to the United Nations.
1960 - Hundreds of thousands take to the streets to protest the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty. In the largest, longest labor action of the postwar era, workers at the Mitsui-owned Miike Coal Mine strike for 282 days, but ultimately fail to achieve increased job security.
1964 - Tokyo Olympic Games and the first shinkansen (bullet train)
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. Japan passes West Germany in GNP to become second only to the United States and the USSR.
1968-1969 - Student protests erupt on 141 college campuses nationwide.
1971 - The "doru shokku" - as Japanese economic competitiveness increases, the United States stops coddling the yen, decoupling it from the dollar and thus ending 25 years of artificially high exchange rates.
1972 - Okinawa reverts to Japan.
1988 - The Recruit Scandal weakens the LDP.
1989 - Emperor Hirohito dies, bringing an end to the tumultuous Showa era.

Heisei Period (1989-present)

1990 - The "Bubble Economy" collapses.
1993 - Morihiro Hosokawa becomes the first Prime Minister from a party other than the conservative Liberal Democratic Party since the LDP's founding in 1955.
1995 - Great Hanshin Earthquake, Aum Shinrikyo cult sarin gas attack on Tokyo Subway.
2009 - The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wins control of the Lower House of the Diet, ending more than fifty years of almost uninterrupted rule by the LDP.
2011 - In the 3/11 triple disaster, a massive 9.0 earthquake off the northeastern coast of Japan causes a devastating tsunami which kills approximately 30,000 people, and a grade 7 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
2022 - Former prime minister Shinzō Abe is assassinated using a home-made shotgun by a Japanese man disgruntled over Abe's connections to the Unification Church.

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people who contributed to this writeup: gn0sis, sekicho

Jomon Period	Oda Nobunaga	Toyotomi Hideyoshi	Meiji Period
Shogun	Kamakura Period	Sengoku Period	Emperors of Japan
Muromachi Period	Go-Daigo	Heian Period	Heian Period Attitudes Towards Food
Allied Occupation of Japan	Kofun Period	Jimmu	Mongol Invasion of Japan
Nara Period	Yayoi Period	Tokugawa Ieyasu	Prince Shotoku
Temmu	World History	USS Panay	Kemmu Restoration