According
to traditional Japanese mythology, the ancestral Emperor Jinmu, who started
a line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day, founded Japan in
the 7th century BC. Nonetheless, for most of its history, real power was
in the hands of the court nobility, the shoguns, the military, or, recently,
prime ministers.
Recorded Japanese history began in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, when Baekje,
a kingdom in Korea, introduced the Chinese writing system, Buddhism, and
other Chinese culture. Through the Taika Reform Edicts of 645, Japanese
intensified the adoption of Chinese cultural practices, and reorganized
government in accordance with the Chinese administrative structure. This
paved the way for the dominance of Chinese Confucian philosophy in Japan
until the 19th century.
The Nara period of the 8th century marked the first strong Japanese state
centered on an imperial court in the city of Heijo-kyo (now Nara). The
imperial court later moved to Nagaoka and later Heian-kyo (now Kyoto),
starting a "golden age" of classical Japanese culture called
the Heian period.
According
to traditional Japanese mythology, the ancestral Emperor Jinmu, who started
a line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day, founded Japan in
the 7th century BC. Nonetheless, for most of its history, real power was
in the hands of the court nobility, the shoguns, the military, or, recently,
prime ministers.
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