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===== Japan: A Short Cultural history =====

==== Origins ====
  * Origins hazy - Cosmogonic and Theogonic aspects
  * Physical artifacts provide most useful information about origin
  * Written record of earliest origins embelished for a variety of reasons
  * People - mixed - from South, mainland, Ural-Altaic
  * 'Wa' - Chinese name for Japan
  * Female leaders
  * Initial close relationship with Korea/ China
  * Shintoism - animistic
  * Chinese writing --> provide means for Japan/Korea to document their history etc.

==== Themes ====
  * **Cycles**: Prehistory to consolidation to feudalism (reminds me of 三国演义）
  * Governments/people in power want to **preserve** the status quo
  * Limited talent pool leads to gradual decline
  * Religious **syncretism** has been happening throughout the ages
  * Early **literature** describes life of the elite, not the average

==== Key Periods ====

  * Early history
  * Nara
  * Heian
  * Kamakura 
  * Muromachi - Ashikaga Shoguns
  * Sengoku
  * Yedo
    * Tokugawa regime
    * Genroku
  * Post-feudalism

==== Author ====

  * Sir George Bailey Sansom
  * Englishman
  * Commercial Secretary to British Embassy in Tokyo 1925 to 1940
  * Professor of Japanese Studies in Columbia

====Source====
Sansom, G. B. (2015). Japan: A short cultural history. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1568989

====History====
  * 2020-09-10 Created in doukuwiki

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