Despite its isolation from foreign threats, Japan came to be dominated by a warrior class. What does this tell us about politics in the twelfth-century world?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Japan domination by a warrior class
1. In the 1070s, courtiers, temples, and merchants succeeded in opening Japan to foreign trade in their own economic interests
a. trade with Korea resumed for a while as a result of the initiative of Korea's energetic King Munjon
b. direct relations between Japan and China followed
c. newly rich families became players for power
1. greatest profiteers were the Taira clan
2. built up their power by acquiring provincial governorships and penetrating and, by early in the second half of the twelfth century, dominating the imperial court
3. civil wars, culminating in 1185, their rivals and relatives, the Minamoto clan, had replaced them as imperial "protectors" or shoguns
4. emperors never recovered real power
B. Effects of isolation on politics
1. once states open up and establish contact with outside regions, political change will occur as groups struggle for power and economic security
2. power struggles do occur within an isolated system but small and do not bring about lasting change