What is your favourite period in Japanese history ?

[Dogen Z]

My vote is for the Muromachi Period. This was when many of the now-traditional Japanese arts (tea ceremony, flower arranging, Noh, architecture, landscape gardening, etc.) developed and flourished. There was also a lot of contact and trade with the China under the Ming Dynasty (the Shogun even paid tribute to the Chinese Emperor) and Zen Buddhism took root and became widespread. On the other hand, the country was racked by wars between daimyos and the aristocracy had a very militaristic character. It was a very interesting time but I guess the peasants wished it wasn't so interesting.

[suzuro]

I think Heian is the best. It is the most elegant period in Japan. I like "The Tale of Mr. Genji". Though I don't think Mr. Genji is a nice guy.
I think Lady Mursaki, the authur of this story, is famous.She lived in this period. I think Lady Murasaki in "Hannibal rising" is named after her. but Lady Murasaki in "Hannibal ..." is a little strange for Japanese. But she is cool.
Anyway, I like Heian era. Onmyoji (Japanese Magician? who was thought to manege supernaturals in this period) is cool.

[yukio_michael]

This thread has a poll so it's already been bumped, but I think Late Showa to the Bubble period is too long of a time to consider as one coherant whole... If you study the dynamism of the bubble economy of Japan, and the following years post-bubble, which probably belong as part of the bubble econonomy period, the period of the bubble, and it's decline... were probably the hey-day of the modern-Japanese culture... I see them as a seperate entity, based on what people were spending their money on, versus the culture of keitai that exists now...

My personal favourite is probably the above, but more or less, the period of time of the ousting of the Tokugawa shogunate & the Meiji restoration era are complex and very fascinating.

[senseiman]

This thread has a poll so it's already been bumped, but I think Late Showa to the Bubble period is too long of a time to consider as one coherant whole...

Too long? Thats only about 60 years, about half the choices on the poll are over 200!

[Kumi-chanmi]

I like the Heian and Edo periods the most. ^^

[Wantalk]

Azuchi-Momoyama time period, because that is the period that gave us the images that most people think of when they hear the word Samurai.

[anindya]

I guess Late showa is the period of peace & proserity .

[DateMasamune]

Really my favourite 'time-zone of Japanese' history is the late Muromachi to early Edo periods, so I chose Azuchi-Momoyama as that was basically the majority of what I consider to be the best part of Date Masamune's life. Minus the...death of his father...yeah

[Dogen Z]

Unfortunately, I wan't around for most of the periods indicated. But writing from experience, I'd say the Baburu Jidai (Bubble Era), when the price of the the Imperial Palace alone was worth more than the all of California, USA was a terrific period. Bank clerks in Japan were making as much as CPAs in the U.S. And there was really cool club music like Prince, etc. You should check out his movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0906564/usercomments

[priji]

the Heian Period in Japan because the structure of society was so rigid and fascinating,

[olosta]

I like Heian, because of the cultural revolution and the role of women in the politics and court life..and I like the poetry and literature of the period (though I stil didn´ t read the Genji monogatari, I can´t get hold of it). Then the end of the shogunate and Meiji, because it was a critical point in Japan´s history (I like as well the Great French revolution).

[AJBryant]

I'm really gung-ho on the Heian period, and the paradigm shift to Kamakura (though for some reason everyone associates me with the sengoku). Fascinating stuff.

Tony

[bluepilot]

Kamakura period all the way.

At University, when we first studied this period I had to learn about Buddhist history and the Politics of the court (memorising names and dates..) and so I was banging my head off a brick wall.

However, then I read Heike Monogatari and my persepctive totally changed.

It was an exciting time with lots of development of Budo and Bushido and the emergence of the samurai classes. And the Buddhists...they were an exiting rebellious lot.

Then the Kabuki plays that were based on this, tee hee hee

For the blood-crazed warrior romantic, someone who secretly wants to marry Goemon from Lupin (seriously, if you know anyone like him, introduce me) the Kamakura period is the one for me

[SpikeDaCruz]

I cannot choose only one...:\

[tzvete]

I choose Nara and Heian It's because of the literature though.

[Giostigma]

I don't know much about Japanese history but the Late Showa era appears like it was a good time to live in.

[Dogen Z]

If you combine all the votes for the Showa era (why is it split up in the poll?), you'd count 34 votes, second only to the Edo era. Maybe it's because of its closeness (people tend to magify the importance of recent events) or maybe its my fondness for the Showa era bars under the tracks at Yurakucho, but I think the Showa era may be one of the most important periods in Japanese history.

And to provide a more personal take on this period, Kaoru Shoji (one of the very, very, few good writers for the Japan Times) has written an interesting aricle about this time.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0090909ks.html

During the many ups and downs of the Showa Era, the fifth decade (1975-1980) — or the '50s — was a relatively good time to grow up. In Tokyo, there were still such things as roji (路地, alleyways), where tiny houses crowded against each other, kids played marbles and adults grew flowers in small earthenware pots. No one bothered to lock their doors, and everyone looked out for each other. On the other hand, sanitary standards on the streets weren't always up to scratch — pipes overflowed after big rainstorms, huge splotches of vomit dotted pavements like avant-garde art installations, carcasses of dead rats and cats often greeted one on the walk to school, and stray dogs with skin disease lurked behind trash cans. Kimochiwarui, demo omoshiroi! (気持ち悪い、でもおもしろい, Yucky, but interesting!)

[om3a]

i love the era from when the sword "katana" was made until they brought guns =.= lol

[Elizabeth]

I chose the Bakumatsu age of Japanese history (1800-1867). Not as it has been romantized for the last samurai or the anarchy brought about by the introduction of western culture but mostly out of a personal fascination with the traditions of Shitamachi -- the low-cityTokyo pleasure quarters around the Sumida River, non-samurai commoners, land of the elite artisans and merchants. Particularly interesting to me by late Edo times was the popular urban publishing culture. Actually the flourishing social milieu of a publishing culture. Literacy rates were so high for a preindustrial societies that publishing houses in the major cities flooded the country with all manner of printed ephemera from encyclopedias, playbooks guidebooks and sophisticated picture books to commercial advertising. The beginnings of a knowledge society. It meant that educational participation, individual intellect and skills were at least as highly regarded as methods of war.

And with the exile of Tokogawa and the painting over of the old districts, the wealthy merchant class who were pushed out to the highlands (Yamanote) unfortunately took their lively, flowery culture of ukiyo-e wood cuts, the kabuki, the geisha, storytelling, chapbooks, etc. and dispersed. From around 1870-1940 the area became disinvested and basically left to squalor until it was killed altogether by war (until the late Showa Dogen Z was referring to....)

[Tokugawa Ieyasu]

I chose the Edo period:Tokugawa Ieyasu is one bad *** consolidator, and the "floating world" art works are really cool.

[Qube]

I think 'Sengoku' period is the greatest one
The era when the first daimyo who had united japan lived
Nobunaga Oda

Where can i get katana sword?
Can i order the original katana from japan?
Is there any sites who sell that kind of thing?