Feudal Japan Study Guide: Samurai and Shoguns From Heian to Sekigahara in 59 Flashcards
Study feudal Japan with 59 flashcards: rebuild the timeline from Heian to Sekigahara, fix the 1192 date and shugo/jito card, add the Three Unifiers.
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Feudal Japan: Samurai & Shoguns (OQ0808) has 59 cards on Japanese warrior history, from the Heian court to Sekigahara. The facts are mostly solid, but they come in Wikipedia order, not in time order. The Heian background is in cards 42-48, after the Muromachi cards. The best way to learn this deck is to put it back in order first.
Study this deck: Feudal Japan: Samurai & Shoguns
1 / 10Who were the samurai?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
Rebuild the timeline in four eras
- Heian (794-1185), cards 42-48 and 9-10. Here you meet the Fujiwara marriage politics, cloistered rule, The Tale of Genji, and the tax-exempt shōen that pushed landowners to raise private samurai forces.
- Kamakura (1185-1333), cards 3-8, 11-19, 41, 49-52 and 57. This era covers the Genpei War, Dan-no-ura, the bakufu, the Hōjō regents, the Jōkyū War, the two Mongol invasions and the rise of Zen.
- Muromachi and Sengoku (1336-1573), cards 20-40, 56, 58-59. Here are Ashikaga Takauji, the Nanboku-chō split, Kinkaku-ji, the Ōnin War, ninja, Portuguese muskets and Francis Xavier.
- Azuchi-Momoyama (1568-1600), cards 53 and 55.
Tag each card with its era and study one era at a time. You will learn the events in the order they happened.
Key cards
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| What was the bakufu? | Military government, literally "tent government" |
| What was the Battle of Dan-no-ura? | 1185 naval battle where Minamoto no Yoshitsune defeated the Taira |
| What does kamikaze mean? | Divine wind, the typhoons that destroyed the Mongol fleet |
| What was the Jōkyū War of 1221? | Retired Emperor Go-Toba's failed rebellion against the shogunate |
| What were gokenin? | Close vassals of the shogun |
| What was the Ōnin War? | 1467-1477 succession conflict that destroyed Kyoto |
| When did the Portuguese first reach Japan? | 1543, at Tanegashima |
| What was the Battle of Fukuda Bay in 1565? | First recorded naval battle between Europeans and Japanese |
Other terms you'll learn: seii taishōgun, Hōjō Masako, Hōjō Tokimasa, Kenmu Restoration, daimyō, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and Yoshimasa, Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen, Nagasaki, ikebana, Noh, Hōnen, Nichiren, the ritsuryō state.
Four cards to fix
- Card 3 says the Kamakura shogunate was founded in 1192, but card 5 starts the period in 1185. 1192 is when Yoritomo got the title of shogun. Most historians now date the regime to 1185, when he won the right to appoint shugo and jitō. Keep both dates on the card and label what each one marks.
- Card 16 calls both shugo and jitō "provincial governors." They were two different posts. Shugo were military constables, one per province. Jitō were stewards on individual estates. Split this into two cards.
- Card 48 dates Taira no Kiyomori's defeat of the Minamoto to 1156. In the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156, both clans fought on both sides. Kiyomori actually crushed Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji Rebellion of 1159-60.
- Card 18 says Go-Toba was exiled "along with" two emperors. In fact the three were sent to different places: Go-Toba to Oki, Juntoku to Sado and Tsuchimikado to Tosa.
What the deck leaves out
Card 55 says Sekigahara was a "major transition" but never says who won. Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi appear only by name, and Tokugawa Ieyasu never appears at all. Add three founder cards, one for each of the Three Unifiers, and a fourth card: "Who won Sekigahara? Tokugawa Ieyasu, shogun in 1603." Without them, the title promises shoguns but the story stops before the last shogunate begins.
Where to go next
The story continues with the Tokugawa peace and its collapse. Our guide to the Meiji Restoration, from sakoku to the Satsuma Rebellion picks up where this deck ends.
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