• 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.

• 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

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

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

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

• 2020-09-10 Created in doukuwiki