About Japanese culture

The origin of Japanese culture

Does Japanese culture have its own roots? The answer is yes. Although Japanese culture always takes foreign culture as the medium in its formation and development, it has its own roots after all. Japanese culture is like a tree, and its roots are deeply rooted in Japanese customs. If we investigate its origin, it can be traced back to the rope-grain era thousands of years BC. "Rope culture, Yayoi culture and tomb culture are three periods of Japanese primitive culture."

Japanese history began with the appearance of stone tools, and the rope-grain age is Japan's stone age. The pottery of that period excavated by archaeology has a colorful straw rope appearance on the surface, which is called rope pottery in history. Rope pottery has a long history, its appearance is more and more complex, and its patterns are more and more colorful, which shows the maturity of pottery-making technology and the development of stone processing at that time. Although Japan was already in the Neolithic Age, due to the geographical position of the island country, the advanced culture of Eurasia failed to enter Japan at that time. Rope people live in hard caves and still make a living by fishing, hunting and gathering, but they don't know how to farm. The lag of productivity also made its society stay at the stage of matriarchal clan commune at that time. Witchcraft dominates people's primitive social life and spiritual life.

From the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD, Japanese history entered the yayoi era. Archaeologists unearthed new pottery with different rope patterns in Yayoi Town, bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, which is called Yayoi pottery in history and Yayoi culture in history. Yayoi pottery is simple in shape and uncomplicated in pattern, which is quite different from rope pottery and embodies a new aesthetic taste. It is generally believed that Yayoi pottery was imported from overseas, that is, people who moved in from the mainland may have brought a new Yayoi culture. Although the new culture overcame the original rope pattern culture and became the mainstream of Japanese culture, foreigners were eventually assimilated by indigenous people, and the Japanese nation was not interrupted. During the yayoi period, the productivity was greatly improved, because the advanced continental civilization spread to Japan through the Korean peninsula, which prompted Japan to enter a farming society dominated by rice farming economy, and the Stone Age entered the Iron Age. Yayoi people engaged in farming, growing food, and gradually formed a large village with labor force. Patriarchal social system replaced matriarchal social system, and class differences and political rule gradually formed. At that time, nature worship and witchcraft superstition still dominated people's spiritual life, especially the prevalence of farming sacrifice activities, which became a major feature of Yayoi culture.

From the 3rd and 4th centuries to the 6th and 7th centuries, many ancient graves with high graves, represented by the former round graves, were built in various places, marking the era when Japan entered the ancient grave culture from Yayoi culture. Building an ancient grave requires recruiting a large number of laborers, and exquisite handicrafts such as mirrors, swords and gouyu are also buried in the grave, which symbolizes the great power of the deceased before his death. This is in sharp contrast to the simple burial after death of ordinary people, which shows that a powerful autocratic centralization has been formed, that is, Yamato, with Ju Chi as the center, finally unified Japan in the early 5th century. During this period, Japan not only introduced material civilization from the mainland, but also began to introduce spiritual civilization from the mainland. On the one hand, Han people and Koreans who moved to Japan, the so-called "naturalized people", began to use Chinese characters to record. On the other hand, China's knowledge of Yin and Yang and astronomy was introduced into Japan. In the 6th century, Confucian classics and Buddhism were also introduced into Japan through the Korean Peninsula, which opened the curtain of Japanese spiritual culture.

As can be seen from the above, the germination and formation of Japanese primitive culture has gone through a long historical period. It can be seen from the research of rope pattern, yayoi and ancient grave culture so far that the primitive culture of Japan was produced by the Japanese in primitive society in the process of fighting against the external nature, seeking and enriching their own material life, and once the island country of Japan came into contact with the outside world, foreign advanced culture was introduced immediately and became the growth hormone of Japanese culture. Secondly, spiritually and culturally, witchcraft and sacrifice dominated the social life of Japanese in primitive society, which provided a foundation for the formation of Japanese national religion-Shinto. Thirdly, the formation of Japanese primitive culture is almost synchronous with the formation of Japanese nation and country, and they are closely related and inseparable. That is, taking the Yamato region as the center, integrating all ethnic groups and forming a "Yamato nation"; The "Yamato State" finally unified "100 countries" and established an emperor state.

After Japan was reunified, it not only absorbed China's advanced production technology, but also began to absorb China's political system. Especially in the process of promoting the reform of ancient dynasties (554-628), the reformists headed by Shoto Kutaishi (574-662) carefully studied China's classics and absorbed all kinds of advanced ideas and cultures imported from China and North Korea, especially the Seventeen Constitutions formulated by Shoto Kutaishi adopted China's laws, Confucianism, Mohism and Buddhism. In the reform of Dahua (646), Emperor Kotoku (587-654) imitated the official system of the Tang Dynasty and carried out a comprehensive political system reform, thus pushing Japanese society to a centralized feudal country with a complete legal system. The 7th century to the middle of19th century was the historical period of Japanese feudal society. Houfei (593-7 10), Nara (7 10-794), Ping 'an (794- 1 192), Kamakura (11)

The culture of the early Japanese feudal society (Flying Birds, Nara and Heian Period) was embodied in the culture of Baifeng, Tian Ping and Heian. The so-called Baifeng culture refers to the culture from Dahua to Nara, and Tian Ping culture generally refers to the culture of the whole Nara period. During this period, Japan actively established close relations with the Sui and Tang Dynasties, actively absorbed the culture of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, especially the Tang Dynasty, and effectively promoted the development of Japanese culture. After Buddhism came, it was used by the court, protected by the court, and even became the state religion. Buddhist art, represented by Yakutski in Nara, became a major landscape in Japanese cultural history at that time. In addition, on the basis of memorizing sounds with Chinese characters, Japan borrowed the sounds and meanings of Chinese characters to mark Japanese sounds and created a "pen name of Wanye", and created a collection of harmony songs, Wanye Collection. At this point, Japan ended the history of language without writing, which is an epoch-making event in the history of Japanese culture. With the emergence of pseudonyms, Japanese literature gradually occupied the mainstream position. Architecture and sculpture, painting and music, calligraphy and tea ceremony. , all show their "gentle breeze", showing the unique characteristics of Japanese culture.

The culture in the middle period of Japanese feudal society (Kamakura era and Muromachi era) was characterized by samurai culture. Samurai, originally meant to learn martial arts and be in charge of military power. It appeared in Japan as a new class after the middle of the 9th century. At that time, with the strength of the manor, a folk armed force was formed to suppress farmers, fight against the State Council and defend the interests of the manor, which was called the Samurai Regiment. The establishment of the Kamakura shogunate marks that the military regime with samurai as the ruling class has become the actual power to dominate Japan. When the Kamakura shogunate declined, the imperial court tried unsuccessfully to regain power, and the Muromachi shogunate came to power. Compared with the aristocratic culture centered on the imperial court, samurai culture is more inclined to the masses and contains many new popular cultural factors. As far as the samurai class itself is concerned, the ethics formed by taking the master-servant contract as the principle of interpersonal relationship has both the inhuman side of trampling on creatures and the new moral vitality of loyalty to their masters; The morality of fifty also changes with the times, so we must analyze it concretely. Samurai literature with the theme of samurai's military life, the popularity of Zen, which is consistent with samurai's mood, and the emergence of various theoretical works are all new features in Japanese cultural history during this period.

The culture in the later period of Japanese feudal society (Anshi Taoshan and Edo era), that is, the culture in Edo era (also known as Tokugawa era). The edo period lasted for more than 260 years, and it was a period of maturity and collapse of Japanese feudal society. Due to long-term social stability, economic prosperity, and once closed to the outside world, pre-modern Japanese culture was extremely prosperous and mature. In a word, the main trends of Edo culture are as follows: First, China's Confucianism, especially Zhuzi Studies, gained exclusive status and became an official ideology, which promoted the development of Japanese spiritual culture. The second is the creation and prosperity of Japan's unique ideology and culture. Third, the acceptance and study of western culture.

China's Founding and Meiji Culture

At the end of Tokugawa (1845- 1867), Japan faced a national crisis and a feudal crisis. From the middle of18th century, European and American powers began to spy on Japan. 1854, Perry led the American fleet to knock on the customs for the second time, forcing Japan to sign the Japan-US Goodwill Treaty, and the door of Japan was opened. The subsequent signing of the "Five-Power Security Political Treaty" ended more than 200 years of political lock-up, leaving Japan in a semi-colonial position and deepening the national crisis of full-scale colonization. At the same time, after the opening of the port, various class contradictions in China intensified, and the struggle against the autocratic shogunate rose under the banner of "respecting the king and rejecting foreign countries". Although the shogunate carried out some reforms and tried to get rid of domestic troubles and foreign invasion, it eventually collapsed in 1868 due to the terminal illness of the feudal shogunate system, and the Meiji government was established. Since then, Japan has opened a new chapter in modern history.

Meiji era (1868- 19 12) was an era when Japanese capitalism was formed, developed and headed for imperialism, and it was also an era when Japan entered the turn of the 20th century from 19th century. From the perspective of cultural history, Meiji culture should not only provide the foundation for the new government to establish a modern capitalist state system in the early Meiji period, but also serve the later capitalist modernization. On the other hand, Japanese culture should also complete its own transformation and develop its own culture. Generally speaking, Meiji culture experienced 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, put forward three major policies: civilization, industrialization and prosperity, and making Qiang Bing rich. Civilization means liberation of pre-modern society and modernization of capitalism. At that time, Japan had realized that it was necessary to learn from both western material civilization and western spiritual civilization. Fukuzawa Yukichi, an enlightenment thinker known as a national teacher, said: "Civilization has two aspects, namely, external things and internal spirit." The appearance of civilization is easy to get, but the spirit of civilization is hard to find. Therefore, he put forward the model of "transforming people's hearts first, then transforming government decrees, and finally achieving tangible things" to realize Japan's modern civilization. Then, centering on "Liu Ming society", a group of promising intellectuals set off their enlightenment thoughts, and the wave of Westernization hit the Japanese archipelago, rippling all aspects of society and shocking the hearts of the Japanese. However, the tide rises and falls. After the Westernization craze cooled down a little, nationalists made a comeback, trying to deny enlightenment and revive tradition. People of insight, while criticizing the retro trend and affirming the general direction of civilization, also reflected on the chaos in the early ideological and cultural circles, and explored the way to create modern Japanese culture with the imported western culture as the medium according to the needs of modern Japanese social development. It can be said that the culture in the late Meiji period has been transformed into modern culture, and in the process of flowing, colliding and blending with western culture, a unique road for the development of modern Japanese culture has been explored.

A short-lived Dazheng culture

Taisho era (19 12- 1926) was a short and relatively stable period. The fundamental feature of this era is that the wave of democracy is sweeping across all fields of culture. Since the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War, in the process of the rapid development of Japanese monopoly capital, a new middle class machine middle class has gradually formed in both cities and rural areas. Politically, this class opposed the bureaucratic autocracy of warlords at that time, demanded the realization of party politics and universal suffrage, thus forming a great positive democratic movement. In this era, Dazheng culture has distinct modernity, and advocating the establishment of modern self and individualism and rationalism has become the keynote of Dazheng culture.

The core of Dazheng democratic thought is democracy. Yoshino Zuozao, 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 should also conform to the wishes of the people. People-oriented is the basis of Yoshino's political thought. Although he recognized the emperor system, he advocated the realization of a veritable constitutional monarchy, that is, limiting the tyranny of warlords and bureaucrats and expanding the power of parliament. Judging from the historical conditions at that time, Yoshino's thought undoubtedly had positive and progressive significance. Under the trend of the democratic era, philosophy and social sciences in Taisho period also took on a new look. The idealistic philosophy of Neo-Kant School has extended to the whole intellectual world. As a neo-Kantian school, the Japanese version of culturalism, individualism and upbringing was popular in the ideological circle for some time. Culturalism not only affirms cultural value, but also emphasizes human subjectivity, which leads to individualism, that is, personality value is regarded as the only ethical value. Yanbo Bookstore, which has contributed to Dazheng culture, has published many new books and published a series of philosophies from 19 15 to 19 17, propagating idealistic philosophy, which is called "Yanbo culture". In addition, historian Tsuda Zuoyouji's rationalistic explanation of Japanese ancient history and folklorist Yanagita Kunio's study of ordinary people's lives are both unprecedented, which strongly promoted the development of Taisho social science research.

In the Taisho period, if the political thought is represented by humanism and philosophy is represented by the idealism of the Neo-Kant school, then the literary field is represented by the "Birch School". A group of young writers headed by Saneatsu Mushakoji founded the literary magazine Hundred Flowers on April 19 10, which formed an influential literary school. From 1923 (Dazheng 12) to 13, this school held high the banner of neo-idealism, carried out active literary activities, and occupied the mainstream position in Dazheng literary world. Dissatisfied with the declining naturalism literature, they advocate "giving full play to the role of human will through individuals or personalities" and regard "respecting nature and human will and exploring how individuals should live" as the goal of this literary school. Under the guidance of this thought, they created many works with rich contents and novel forms, and trained many famous writers. The birch movement has surpassed the literary world, and has exerted a wide and profound influence on the education and even the society. During this period, drama, art, music and other cultural fields showed a new look different from Meiji culture.

Dazheng culture is fresh and prosperous. However, the Taisho era disappeared before it was launched, and the short Taisho culture came to an end.

The ups and downs of Showa early culture

Showa era (1926- 1989) started at the beginning of this century and ended at the end of this century, lasting 63 years. It can be said that it is the only important historical period in modern Japanese history that can represent the changes and characteristics of the 20th century. Undoubtedly, this change and particularity have been fully reflected in the cultural history of Showa.

In the early Showa, with the agitation and changes of Japanese society, Japanese culture also wrote its own history in the contest between light and darkness, progress and retrogression. 1920s, proletarian culture was born, and various literary and art groups were established one after another, such as the Japan Proletarian Literature and Art Alliance,1928+February, when the Council of the All-Japan Proletarian Art Troupe Sports Association was newly established, 193 1 The association was expanded into the All-Japan Proletarian Cultural Alliance, and the proletariat was established. Kobayashi Takiji's The Crab Boatman and De Yongzhi's Streets Without the Sun are excellent works describing the life of proletarians. The Left-wing Troupe staged progressive dramas such as Eyes or Slaves, The Storm and Furious Waves. Until the July 7th Incident, he still insisted on performing dramas such as Naked Street and Forever that exposed the darkness of society. When the Art League holds a mass exhibition of paintings, it also delivers the works to the masses. Thinkers formed a "materialist research society" to publicize Marxist theory, launched a theoretical struggle against fascism from philosophy, and emerged outstanding Marxist philosophers such as Kawakami, Tosaka and Nagata Hiroshi.

As mentioned above, the early Showa period was a period when Japan accelerated the implementation of imperialist fascism and launched a war of foreign aggression until it failed. In the field of ideology and culture, nationalism, super-nationalism and japanism gradually rise and occupy a dominant position. After the September 18th Incident, the Japanese government established the National Institute of Spiritual Culture as a "national policy" in 1932. 1934, the military department called "war is the father of creation and the mother of culture" in the true meaning of national defense and the proposition of strengthening national defense; 1935 The House of Representatives passed the resolution of "defining the state system", and 1940 held the activity of "commemorating the 2600th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China", emphasizing the "Japanese spirit" and propagating the idea of "Imperial Taoism". Under the impetus of the government, the cultural circles organized various fascist literary groups to engage in "war literature" and "culture of serving the country"; Ideological circles also flocked to advocate Japanese spiritualism and return to Japan. From 1933 to 1935, Xinchao Society launched 12 volumes of lectures on Japanese spirit, with a view to rebuilding Japanese studies under the consciousness of the Imperial Taoism and trying to eradicate the national cancer by re-appreciating and understanding the Japanese spirit and culture that have been left out for a long time. The right-wing philosophers of Kyoto school advocate "philosophy of world history" and "philosophy of war" and demonstrate Japan's foreign aggression war as philosophers; What's more, Ikki's fascist theory was openly concocted by Zhou Ming and North Korea, which directly provided a theoretical basis for the government to promote fascist militarism.

While advocating and popularizing fascist culture, the government constantly strengthens ideological rule, suppresses all progressive cultures and persecutes all progressive cultural figures. As for Marxism, it was completely banned, and the "materialism research society" was banned in 1939. Some Marxist scholars, such as Kawakami, Tuban Run and Nagata Hiroshi, were arrested and imprisoned, and some died of persecution in prison. Faced with the power rule of fascist militarism, a few intellectuals compromised or even defected in setbacks.

At this point, the 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 World War II

After the war, Japan's social stability and sustained economic development created conditions for the all-round prosperity of culture. The most important feature is the development and popularization of life culture and material culture. This is because the freedom of thought and speech has been expanded after the war and guaranteed by the system; The expansion of workers' strength and the improvement of living standards after the war have also become an opportunity for the prosperity of popular culture. The characteristics of Japan's cultural popularization after the war are as follows: 1. Various cultural groups and workers' cultural clubs have emerged and carried out active activities; The revival of old cultural forms; 3. The inflow of overseas culture; The integration of popular culture and advanced culture. The social function produced by the popularization of culture is twofold. On the one hand, it improves the subjective quality of the masses as social masters and makes them play a more important role in social and economic development; On the other hand, it leads to the commercialization of culture, which makes people unilaterally pursue the consumption value of culture, leading to a sharp drop in creative enthusiasm and even the proliferation of decadent culture. In other words, while Japanese culture prospered after the war, there appeared a negative phenomenon that can not be ignored, that is, cultural decadence and stagnation.

Pingcheng culture

Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, and Crown Prince Akihito ascended the throne, with the year number Heisei. The last decade of the last century was a decade of great changes in the world structure. At the end of the Cold War, the world was developing towards multipolarization, and all countries in the world, including Japan, were striving to establish a new international political and economic order. The new international environment also has an impact on Japanese culture. Japanese culture, which is famous for absorbing multiculturalism, will be more prosperous in the process of integrating itself into the world culture.