3 Reasons Why the Shogun Didn't Defeat the Emperor

why didn't the shogun just defeat the imperial family and become the top leader themselves these are the three reasons that i have found so far [Music] and welcome to last ask shogo if you have studied about japanese history before i'm sure you've learned that japan has been ruled by the imperial family and also the shogun the shogun was the samurai leader of japan that ruled for more than 700 years but how could two authorities exist in history at the same time why didn't just one defeat the other in order to become the one and only leader so today as a japanese man that has been studying japanese history for more than 10 years i will explain about the history of the imperial court and shogunate and also take a closer look at their relationship throughout history this video will be perfect for those who are studying about japanese history and culture to have a clearer image on how japan came to be how it is today and even if you get confused somewhere during the middle that's okay i will wrap everything up again at the end of the video in today's conclusion [Music] then first let's start from taking a look at the history of the emperor and imperial court in order to do so we need to go way back in history the peaceful hunting and gathering era that lasted for more than ten thousand years came to an end when the methods of paddy field agriculture and rice farming imported from the korean peninsula spread out through japan about 3 000 years ago this is because the people started to settle down in certain areas to grow and save food which created the difference between the rich and poor depending on the environment you are living in more than 100 small countries fought each other for centuries until a strong unified nation called yamato administration was born around 380. yes the leaders of this nation are the ancestors of the emperor and imperial family today for most of japanese history the imperial family had much authority because they were thought of as direct descendants of the gods and goddesses that created japan before humans existed but how could they make everyone believe that this comes from descriptions in two books called hojiki and each written in 712 and 720 kojiki was written in the original yamato language because it was only meant to be read by one's people and nihonshoki was written in kanji characters in order to be presented to foreign countries they were both written during the time when the imperial family was trying to build a centralized system and they needed to unify the mythical beliefs of all japanese people this is because back at that time each small country had their own myths and legends in other words they spread the story in which they believed in saying that they were the rightful rulers of japan in order to justify their authority let me quickly summarize the story of hojiki for you everything was chaotic until in and young were divided and heaven and earth was born the three gods of heaven gave birth to izanagi and izanami were soon connected and created the islands of japan izanagi also gave birth to three gods amadeus the goddess of the son the god of the moon and sono the god of rage eventually ahmadis became the ruler of heaven and she exiled her brother sununu to earth for repeating wrongdoings sano's descendants started to rule earth and amaterasu was not happy with that either this is why she sent her own descendant hinohoninigi to rule earth and the fourth generation from there is the first emperor of japan jim emperor i'm pretty sure naruto fans were very excited to hear some familiar words if you take a look at the stories you can understand that susanoo represents powerful countries other than the yamato administration but kojiki was written to say that the leaders of the yamato administration or in other words the imperial family who are descendants of amateurs have the rightful authority of ruling japan there is hardly any historical evidence to prove what actually happened in ancient times so kojiki and nihonshoki are still believed to be the story of how japan began however about 500 years after these books were written the imperial family were not the political leaders of japan anymore yes this is where the shogun and shogunate comes into the story then next let's take a look at the history of the shogun shogunate and understand how they come into the story the yamato administration was having a very hard time trying to create a centralized system during the 6th to 8th century one of the biggest problems they had was how to make the peasants pay taxes because having someone suddenly coming up to you and saying hi this is our land you're going to harvest and deliver food to us from now on isn't going to work right so the peasants would often just run away to live somewhere else in the mountains by themselves they tried many different ways but they all failed so in the end in 743 the imperial family helplessly made a law saying the land that you cultivated yourself will become your property forever this law of course motivated many people to rush and secure their own land and they constantly fought each other over it this is when landlords started to arm themselves and formed groups to protect their own land as well as to take the other's land eventually their power was admitted by the imperial family and some of them were hired to protect the aristocrats yes this is the beginning of the samurai those who serve but so far samurai are just barbaric warriors that were hired as bodyguards how could they possibly be able to rule japan from here there was one thing the samurai could do that made the imperial family cherished them so much it was that they could fight and kill buddhist monk warriors in order to understand what this means we need to take a look at the history of buddhism in japan buddhism was imported to japan in 538 from china and the leaders happily accepted this new religion why didn't japan already have shintoism yes shintoism is japan's indigenous belief but the imperial family wanted to achieve a different goal by letting buddhism into their culture buddhism originally started in india traveled through asia to china and then japan through this process buddhism became not only a religion but also a centralized system a method for leaders to control people as you already know that's exactly what the imperial family was hoping to do right buddhism did help the imperial court to promote centralization however eventually the temples and buddhist monks started to gain too much power for example there was a buddhist monk called tokyo born in 700 that was cherished by the emperor of the time who one day said i have received an oracle that i doko and worthy of the next emperor thankfully his ambition was forwarded but buddhist monks started to arm themselves and started making demands towards the imperial court the imperial family were all buddhists at that time so they were afraid of fighting with the monks because it may cause them to be punished by god but there were a group of men who were not afraid of buddhism nor monks at all yes they were the samurai eventually the strength and authority of the imperial court directly became how strong their samurai were this led to the imperial family giving more and more power to the samurai at some point the samurai started to think we aren't afraid of temples and their monk warriors why should we be afraid of the imperial family this is how after some strong samurai groups fought each other the first shogunate kamakura bakfu started in 1185 by minamoto ended after the chaos caused by the mongolian invasion which was then followed by the muromachi shogunate in 1333 however the moromachi shogunate also loses power due to a domestic conflict and this leads to a 150 year long civil war era the long period of war finally ended and the 265 of peace was established thanks to the edo shogunate that started in 1603 [Music] and there were three shogunates throughout history and during that time the samurai ruled japan for about 700 years so who were the shogun and why did they have the right to rule japan shogun is written like this in japanese sho means leader and gun means military so shogun literally stands for a military leader however when we say shogun to refer to the samurai leaders it's actually an abbreviation of sei taishogun taishogun means great military leader but let's say on the front sei means to conquer the emisi which is how they called the northeastern area of japan in ancient times i said earlier that the yamato administration was established as a united nation around 300 a.d but did not include the northeastern region or hokkaido of japan today so the imperial court gave powerful warriors the status as a great military leader to make them fight the indigenous people and conquer northeast japan the first shogun was in 797 who succeeded in settling the entire northeast region originally shogun was just the position of the military commander appointed by the imperial court but eventually its authority was enough to substantially control japan with all that explained the administration built by the shogun is the shogunate now you understand how the samurai gained power and what shogun shogunit stands for but you still might have one question why didn't the shogun just defeat the imperial family and become the top leader themselves there's no absolute answer but these are the three reasons that i have found so far one the imperial family is the representative of gods in japan and the shogunate may be grudged if they kill them two the shogunate does not have any traditional authority and they knew that administration cannot be achieved with military power alone three even though the shogunate was stronger the imperial family had their own military power too and it was easier to control them than to simply destroy them it might have been just one of these reasons or maybe even all of them but in any way the imperial family has existed since the birth of japan itself down to this day [Music] so we discussed the history of both the imperial family and the shogunate however just listening to the explanation so far you might have thought okay so the imperial family basically just gave up their rights to rule japan once the kamakura shogunate was established in 1185 then the answer is no the imperial family fought with the shogunate many times for their chance to become the leader of japan again let's take a look at the three main events of history where the imperial court and shogunate fought each other 1. jokey war 1221 2 kim munoz kim restoration 1333-1335 3 war 1868-1869 1. joky war 1221 this war happened just 36 years after the first shogunate the kamakura shogunate was established it was a war that the imperial family started against the kamakura shogunate to destroy them and regain their authorities as leaders of japan but why this timing it was because after the first shogun that started the kamakura shogunate passed away the second and third shogun also died at a very young age and the bloodline of the family had been cut off the shogunate was lacking unity and the imperial family thought that this was the best chance they had they ordered the samurai all over japan to destroy the shogunate the samurai were all wavering like our rights and samurai are given from the imperial court and they are descendants of god we have to obey their orders otherwise we'll be grudged by the gods but that means we have to destroy our administration however just one person's speech united the samurai which led to the end of the joking war within just two months the person was wife everyone please listen to my last words wasn't it yoritomo that created this government and improved your lives wasn't it yoritomo that made you a samurai and granted you the honor you have now there are some traitors who have forgotten their favor and are trying to destroy us my last wish is that you defeat these men and repay your favors to yoritomo and the two formal shogun if any of you still want to betray us and fight for the imperial family go ahead but kill me first and burn kamakura down to the ground before you go the sam right now were able to believe that they were not fighting the imperial family but the samurai who have betrayed the shogunate in contrast to the imperial court's purpose this war held the samurai to unite even stronger and the power relationship between the shogunate and the imperial family completely reversed the shogunate now had the right to control the succession of the throne and the imperial family had to ask the shoguny's opinions for all matters this is when in both name and reality the samurai government completely ruled japan two kenmu restoration 1333-1335 100 years after the joking war was over there was a chance for the imperial family to regain authority to rule japan again because the kamakura shogunate was losing its power what happened to the samurai government one of the biggest crises in japanese history hit the shogunate the mongolian invasion they came to japan twice in 1274 and 1281 but japan was miraculously able to push them back thanks the storms that wiped their ships away everyone was very happy that they won but the shogunate immediately realized a very crucial problem back at that time the samurai who worked for the shogunate were given land they took from the enemies as rewards for fighting for them however this time the government were not able to give them any land because the enemies were foreigners and they did not obtain any land from winning the samurai who risked their lives to fight with the powerful mongolian warriors were unsatisfied and the shogunate started to lose trust the imperial family were not going to miss such a great occasion they won the war they started against the kamakura shogunate in 1331 and in 1333 they successfully regained their political power to rule japan again hey shogo you explained that the samurai ruled japan for 700 years straight did you lie to us yes the imperial family did succeed in re-establishing a new administration but it only lasted two years please imagine the powerful and ferocious samurai already ruled japan for more than a hundred years would you really think that they would subtly obey the imperial family again no they had their complaints towards the formal shogunate but that didn't mean they would let the imperial court control them so a new samurai leader established a new samurai government which was the second one the romachi shogunate the two governments one led by the imperial court and one led by the samurai will fight each other for 60 years from here until the muromachi shogunate finally takes control the sixty years is called the nambok choj the period of the northern and southern dynasties three the war 1868-1869 after the end of the period of the northern and southern dynasties the imperial court did not start any more major wars with the samurai but try to survive quietly for about 500 years from there however at the end of the samurai rule the imperial family and the shogunate will have their final war to understand why they ended up destroying the 500 years of harmony we must briefly understand the history of the meiji restoration the time of westernization at the end of the 19th century the third shogunate the edo shogunate lasted the longest for more than 250 years and what's amazing is that there were hardly any wars during this period it was thanks to the very clever domination of the samurai government they made a very strict class system to keep everyone in their place such as keeping the samurai poor stop them from overthrowing the government the temple is weak to avoid the intervention to politics and limited amount of trade with foreign countries to prevent christianity from coming into japan that might influence the absolute rule of the shogun all these measures functioned perfectly which brought the long term of peace to japan and helped the traditional culture to grow that still lives on to this day however everything was brought to question when the us navy came to japan with their latest technology and weaponry the u.s wanted to use japan as a port to replenish food and water because they were hunting whales near the oceans of japan for oil they requested that japan abolish their measures of limiting trade and let them use the ports of japan or else kind of thing the shogunate easily signed a treaty that allowed the us to use their ports anytime they wanted approved of consular court and waivered customs autonomy the samurai who worked for the shogunate were of course not happy with this at all now knowing that the government that they had served for generations was such a coward the clans that were especially in a low class thought that they had to tear down this old and weak government and start a new one themselves but how would they possibly do something like that yes as you understand now whoever is appointed by the imperial family is the leader of japan at the beginning the imperial court was on the shogunate side but eventually as the situations got worse and worse they accepted the formal samurai clan's idea of creating a new government under the imperial family once again many measures were taken to solve this problem peacefully however in the end the old shogunate and the new government ended up fighting each other in the war the old shogunate had more than three times the number of troops but they lost to the new government's latest weaponry which were imported from england this is how the 700 years of the shoguny's history came to an end and until japan lost world war ii in 1945 the emperor was the leader of japan again the imperial family still exists in japan today but article 1 of chapter 1 inside the constitution of japan is written the emperor shall be the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people deriving his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power in other words they do not have any political power and japan is now a democratic country [Music] then lastly today's conclusion i explained about the differences and relationships between the emperor imperial court and the children shown it by taking a look at each of their history the history of the emperor imperial court the ancestors of the imperial family that still exist today are those who created the first united nation around 300 a.d called the yamato administration in order to create a centralized system they decided to unify the mythical beliefs of all japanese people they wrote two history books hojiki and nihonshoki as a way to justify their authority by explaining that they are descendants of the gods and goddesses and are the rightful rulers of japan since there's not enough historical evidence these books are still believed to be the true story of how japan was born the history of the shogun one of the biggest troubles that the yamato administration had upon controlling the people was how to force the peasants to pay taxes after many failures in the end they helplessly allowed the people to keep the land they cultivated as their own property this law of course left the people fighting over more land and landowners soon started to arm themselves this is the beginning of the sampling samurai were soon hired by the imperial court as guards and eventually the strength and authority of the imperial port directly became how strong their samurai were the samurai soon became so strong that they started to rule japan themselves the strong samurai leaders were appointed as the taishogun by the imperial court which authority was enough to substantially control japan the samurai government system shogunate existed for 700 years starting with the kamakura shogunate to the muromachi shogunate and finally the edo shogunate the emperor imperial court and the shogun suganet have fought each other many times throughout history 1. joel q war 1221 the imperial court tried to overthrow the kamakura shogunate during the confusion of the leader's bloodline being cut off but failed due to the samurai uniting after the speech of the first shogun's wife two kim moon restoration 1333-1335 the imperial court succeeds in tearing down the kamakura shogunate after the mongolian invasion however the rule lasted only for two years before being destroyed by the shogun who started the muromachi shogunate three war 1868-1869 many former shoguns set up to overthrow the edo shogunate after their cowardly responses towards western countries they succeeded in persuading the imperial court to start a new government and they fought and defeated the old shogunate which ended the samurai era after world war ii the imperial family is now known as symbol of japan and you do not have any political power so that's it for today thank you very much for watching if this video helped you to deepen your understanding towards japanese history please hit the like button to let me know and my goal is to achieve 1 million subscribers by january 2023 so your health is what i need in this channel you can take a closer look at japanese traditional culture tips on traveling to kyoto and social problems in japan so learners and lovers of japanese language and culture be sure to subscribe to enjoy more content and please check out our sub channel and membership in the description box thanks again and i'll see you again soon

Channel: Let's ask Shogo | Your Japanese friend in Kyoto

Views: 417,873

Keywords: lets ask shogo your japanese friend in kyoto, n7DCb9ttrcw9h3vh9dfnVw, UCn7DCb9ttrcw9h3vh9dfnVw, japan, japanese, kyoto, history, culture, shogun, shogunate, tenno, emperor, imperial family

Id: XsuO0i-89uM

Length: 29min 8sec (1748 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021