02-06-2023, 12:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-06-2023, 02:09 PM by JohnnyRomero.)
As some of you may know, I have been doing a great deal of research into the civilizational theories of German writer Oswald Spengler. In part of this, I decided to put his theory of set civilizational life-cycles to the test by analyzing a civilizational which Spengler, intentionally or otherwise, never seems to touch on: Japanese civilization. What I have discovered is that Japan constitutes a distinct (and much younger) civilization from its western neighbor China, with its own prime symbol and a civilizational history which oddly parallels that of Western civilization in both absolute timeframe and certain other particularities.
The Japanese Prime Symbol
Spengler believed that each Civilization-Culture was metaphysically directed by and oriented towards a certain prime- or ur-symbol, which he sees as primarily having to do with said civilization’s conception of space and man’s relation with it. He sees a civilization’s great accomplishments and distinguishments in the fields of architecture, art, religion, politics, and science as expressions and explorations of this central symbol or ideal, and that a Culture loses its metaphysical energy and potential once it exhausts the last of these possibilities, at which point it transitions to a rationalistic and materialistic Civilization. “In a word - Greek soul, Roman intellect - this is the difference between Culture and Civilization.” For example, for Classical civilization the defining ur-symbol was the timeless and eternal discrete body, for Arabian civilization it was the conception of the universe as a vast magical cavern where Good fights Evil, and for Western civilization the fundamental drive has been the exploration of its ur-symbol of infinite space.
With this in mind, we may examine elements of traditional Japanese cultural expression in order to discern its own ur-symbol. From my examination of Japanese culture, I believe that the prime symbol of Japanese civilization is that of The Mountain and the Sun. This should come as no surprise, as the flag of Japan bears a sun, the country is known as “The Land of the Rising Sun,” and Japan, being an extremely mountainous country, is full of important and legendary mountains, the most famous of which is the iconic Mt. Fuji which looms large over Tokyo. But what does the ur-symbol of Mountain and Sun mean in practice, and how is it interpreted as a spatial relation? I believe that the common theme present in both symbols of the Mountain and the Sun which informs and undergirds Japanese civilization is in their centrality and radiation. The Sun is a high, central, ultimate ideal, whose rays of light radiate out and give life and illumination to all things. The Mountain is the counterpoint to the Sun, with the radiations going the opposite direction, with many perspectives and paths all ultimately leading up to the same peak. We can imagine the Divine Sun resting atop the Holy Mountain; the Sun’s rays go out in all directions, beckoning all those surrounding it to come towards it. Each man receives a different ray, but they all ultimately come from the same Sun. In a parallel pattern, each man, now drawn by an individual ray of the Sun, takes a different path up the Mountain to all ultimately reach the same peak. This is the essence of Japanese civilization: diverse unity and unified diversity. The expressions are many, but the orientation is one. One of the best examples of this I can give is the great Hokusai’s famous Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji. I believe that this is also expressed in the relative uniformity of anime art styles and the relatively consistent method of creation (i.e. how the manga almost always precedes the anime), at least in comparison to Western animation (which pursues infinite possibility in all directions). From the single ideal emerge many expressions of said ideal, just as many rays each carry the Sun’s light.
This can be contrasted with the relatively aimless and messy Chinese ur-symbol of the Wandering Way, the hither-and-thither journey through the great garden of nature guided by the divine Dao. Japanese cultural expressions are focused on cleanliness, distinction, and order in a way that Chinese cultural expressions simply are not. I see a greater focus of subject (be it a samurai, an animal, the sun, or divine Amaterasu) in Japanese watercolors when compared to their messy and meandering Chinese counterparts. Japanese pagodas and temples, while superficially similar to their Chinese ancestors, show a much greater focus and verticality, a theme which can also be seen in non-Chinese-influenced traditional Japanese architecture. The intricacies of the tea ceremony, the delicate wrapping of sushi, the perfectionist simplicity of the Zen garden, the strict discipline of the samurai. The Japanese soul is motivated by a striving towards an utterly focused and minute expression of a Divine ideal, the unbending and undimming ray of the Divine Sun of Amaterasu which touches his face and his soul.
Look at the adventures of the typically Chinese hero The Monkey King, who in his numerous powers and abilities, his wide range of companions and allies, and in the number of the places he seeks out or merely happens to end up on his journey, lives a life and gives an example which are both utterly unfocused, messy, and meandering. Now contrast that to the 11th century novel The Tale of Genji, in which the protagonist goes not on an epic meandering quest across the whole cosmos to meet Buddha, but rather dedicates his life to, among other things but most notably, the kidnapping of a beautiful 10-year-old girl to groom her into being the perfect bride in imitation of his stepmother, who was a lookalike of his real mother taken as a concubine for this reason by his lovesick father, the Emperor. Like in Egyptian, Chinese, or Western culture, the nurturing Mother figure is quite present in Japanese culture, representing Care for the future and a historic sense of destiny; but in Japanese culture, she is often conflated with the bride as well, or rather becomes the model for the bride (as seen in both The Tale of Genji and Neon Genesis Evangelion, on both extreme ends of the cultural chronology). O how focused is the Japanese on the ideal, and in Genji we see the creator of the first waifu! Remember how the Sun is believed to be not just a goddess, but the literal and physical Mother of the Emperor, who himself becomes the Sun and Mountain of Japanese politics. To the Chinese, the Emperor was merely one who happened to follow the wandering Dao correctly, and he could be usurped and replaced if he stopped following the Dao and thus lost the Mandate of Heaven. To the Japanese, this is utterly unthinkable. The Emperor is as necessary as the Sun and as immovable as the Mountain, for he embodies both in the flesh. Shogun and daimyo fought amongst each other, but none openly rebelled against the Emperor himself, in much the same way that two mountain climbers could choose different paths but never allow themselves to forget or reject their goal, the Peak.
Now, much has been said already about China, and so now we must address the relation of Japanese civilization to its two main influencers: China and India. Japan has two pseudomorphoses which oddly parallel those of the West. Western civilization was influenced in its politics and aesthetics by the old Classical empires to its immediate East, and its religious faith was imported from the Magian civilization still further East; in much the same way, Japanese civilization was influenced in its politics and aesthetics by the old Chinese empire to its immediate West (albeit much more so than even the West was ever infiltrated by Classical influence), and its religious faith was imported from the Indian civilization still further West. However, while we may see Chinese elements in Japanese art and architecture, they are pregnant with an entirely different meaning and spirit. This parallels the stark differences between original Classical statues, sturdy, immovable, archetypal, and mythic, and their Western Renaissance imitators, dynamic, passionate, tragic, and full of potential and movement. No Hellene could have made Pieta, and no Chinaman could have made The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
The Culture-Cycle of Japan
Now we get to a Spenglerian analysis of Japan’s history. From my estimation, Japan seems to be comparable in age to Western civilization, if perhaps a bit older by a couple centuries. What follows is my division of Japanese history in a Spenglerian organic scheme, with important figures pointed out and their analogies in other civilizations given.
Yayoi Period (~300 BC - ~AD 300) and Kofun Period (~AD 300 - AD 538): Japan’s pre-cultural period (~800 years). Colonization of the archipelago by Mongoloid farmers, importation of Chinese cultural forms (Chinese characters, haniwa terracotta soldiers), beginning of the Yamato Imperial House of Japan. Analogous to the Late Mycenaean period for Classical civilization, the Shang Dynasty for Chinese civilization, and the Merovingian and Carolingian Frankish periods for Western civilization.
Asuka Period (538 - 710): The Early Springtime of Japan. Buddhism imported, balancing previously-established Chinese pseudomorphosis with a new Indian pseudomorphosis. Pre-cultural period ends and proper Early Cultural Springtime begins probably around 600 (or perhaps even as late as 700). The Soga clan strongly parallels the Carolingian dynasty of the West with their status as powerful regents and mayors of the palace as well as their aggressive importation and enforcement of a foreign religion (Buddhism and Christianity, respectively) and a preference for older and more centralized imperial political forms (Chinese and Roman/Byzantine, respectively). Prince Shotoku plays the role of the Japanese Charlemagne by declaring himself equal to the Chinese emperor who inspired his family’s reforms (“From the Son of Heaven in the Land of the Rising Sun to the Son of Heaven in the Land of the Setting Sun”), much as Charlemagne was declared “Emperor of the Romans” in defiance of the Byzantine Emperor’s claim to that title. Attempts made to import Chinese-style Confucian order through the Taika reforms and the ritsuryo legal system, although confounded by native aristocracy and loyal Shinto adherents. The Taiho Code in particular rejects Chinese concepts of meritocracy and the Mandate of Heaven in favor of a preference for aristocratic birth and succession. Name of the country changed from the Chinese-imposed “Wa” (the character meaning “submissive, distant, dwarf”) to the new self-appointed “Nippon” (the character meaning “harmony, peace, balance”). In architecture, the Chinese-inspired yet already distinctly Japanese temple complex of Horyu-ji is constructed, guarded by statues of fierce fire-demons and the austere and mysterious Kudara Kannon statue and with unique solar-pointing poles atop its pagodas. Waka poetry as later collected in the Manyoshu compilation also reflects this primordial emergence of a unique Japanese consciousness out of the ashes of the zombie civilization of China.
Nara period (710 - 794): The Middle Springtime of Japan. Buddhism is finally fully embraced by Japan as a whole. The major Buddhist temple site of the era, Yakushi-ji, follows Horyu-ji in demonstrating the abandonment of the meandering convolution and excessive ornamentation (especially on the roof) of the genuine Chinese style and an increased focus on the cohesive and austere orderliness of the Whole and the unifying symbol of the solar-pointing pagoda-poles. Likewise, the uniquely delicate and ordered style of Japanese garden-making also emerges. The rise in influence of the shoen manorial estates and private militias leads to political decentralization and further feudalism. Zenith of scholarship with debates over Buddhism between the scholars Tokuitso, Saicho, and Kukai, with the latter two founding the holistic and unifying Tendai and the highly esoteric Shingon schools of Buddhism, respectively; parallels with Augustine in Magian civilization and Aquinas in Western. Some resistance to the Early Springtime Buddhist and Chinese imports in the form of the coalescence of a primordial Shinto orthodoxy through the chronicles of traditional Japanese history and mythology, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
Heian period (794 - 1185): The Late Springtime and Early and High Summer of Japan, equivalent to the European Renaissance. Decline in initial Chinese pseudomorphosis and further emergence of a uniquely Japanese spirit, symbolized by the creation of the native katakana and hiragana scripts as alternatives to the Chinese kanji. Manorialist aristocracy dominates with economic, political, and cultural power being concentrated in rural country estates, and seminal works of Japanese literature such as The Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji are written primarily by aristocratic court ladies. Both Tendai and Shingon Buddhism rise in popularity and attempt to curry favor with the reigning aristocracy. Peak of Japanese Culture.
Kamakura period (1185 - 1333): The Late Summer and Early Autumn of Japan. Fashioning of a world of “states” (technically shogunates under the Emperor) in strict form under the Goseibai Shikimoku military code. Establishment of the “New Buddhist” schools of Rinzai and Soto Zen Buddhism, Jodo and Ji Pure Land Buddhism, and Nichiren Buddhism. Elevation of Japan as a divine land superior to China and India in the Jinno Shotoki history of the country, general anti-Chinese Shintoist puritan sentiments.
Muromachi/Sengoku period (1333 - 1603): The Long Late Autumn of Japan. Commercial cities and monetary economies emerge. Rise of absolutism in the form of the daimyo fully overthrowing the old shoen aristocratic manorialism. Beginning of the nanban trade with Westerners (namely the Portuguese and the Dutch), leading to the importation of firearms and Christianity into Japan. Origin of modern Japanese “Zen” aesthetics, along with the codification of the Japanese tea ceremony by Sen no Rikyu. Construction of the cleanly and simply beautiful and utterly un-Chinese golden and silver Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji temples. The eccentric, iconoclastic, and revolutionary philosophy and writings of the Zen poet Ikkyu may parallel the Classical Socrates, Indian Buddha, and Western Rousseau. Gekokujo revolts of social inferiors along with farmer uprisings and general civil war parallel the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Wars. Toyotomi Hideoyoshi acts as a great world-reshaping revolutionary conqueror and reformer and thus parallels Alexander in Classical civilization and Napoleon in Western civilization. With the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate comes the end of Japanese Culture and the beginning of Japanese Civilization.
Edo period (1603 - 1868): The Early Winter of Japan, an age of unity, urbanization, commercialism, kitsch, and plutocracy. Urban money and intellect dominate politics and society. Equivalent to the Hellenistic and Late Roman Republican periods in Classical civilization and the Victorian-American period (1820 - present) in Western civilization. Early incidental failures to invade China or Korea deny this era its otherwise natural expansionist tendencies, leading to a reaction of isolationism. Many samurai, enslaved by debt to the merchants (largely due to social pressure to purchase increasingly expensive consumer goods and mass-produced arts), lose their land and are forced to either become peasants or to move to an urban center. Influence of the merchant class rises. Rapid initial population growth due to economic growth and urbanization leads to Edo gaining a population of a million before cultural liberalization and high rates of abortion and infanticide lead to a population decline. Rise of mass literacy and mass culture. Urban merchants patronize schools which promote literacy, arithmetic, and lecture-halls reciting old and dead doctrines, and the rationalism, materialism, and ethical humanism of Neo-Confucian philosophy dominates the ideology of the leadership. Shintoism and Buddhism are degraded into merely intellectual philosophies of the mind rather than mystical experiences of the soul.
Imperial period (1868 - 1945): The Middle Winter of Japan when the Politics of Blood and Force overthrow the Politics of Mind and Money. Emperor Meiji is the Japanese Caesar, the monarch who defeats oligarchy, equivalent not just to the Classical Caesar but also to the Chinese Qin Shi Huang and the Egyptian Akhenaten. Military expansion and imperial ambitions, collective social energy rightfully abandons the metaphysically-exhausted and stale arts and focuses on rapid industrialization and militarization. The Japanese Empire and “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” would have been equivalent to the Roman Empire had they been allowed to follow their natural course rather than having their lifespans cut short by American intervention.
Zombie period (1945 - present): The Late Winter of Japan. The entirety of Japan is under direct foreign domination for the first time in their history, leading to a slow civilizational death analogous to the death of Egyptian and Mesopotamian under Hellenistic political and cultural hegemony after the conquests of Alexander. Remnant social energy from the preceding Imperial period allows initial economic recovery and prosperity which quickly falls away and bottoms out as the national spirit is fully broken. Birth rate plummets as the civilization loses its collective will to live. The last remnants of the spirit are channeled by individuals into consumer goods (manga, anime, technological toys, etc.) which come and go as fads. Sexual perversion and fetishism dominate, and the natural relations between the sexes are almost totally demolished. The lingering remains of the civilization and its spirit allow for some impotent resistance against Western cultural hegemony, at least for now. Japan reduced to an American military base, tourist destination, and entertainment source.
Conclusion and Final Analysis
I initially undertook this study of Japanese history for two reasons. First, I recognized that Japan had a civilizational spirit quite distinct and dissimilar from that of its neighbor and primary influence, China, and wished to see if I could observe the Spenglerian pattern of cyclical civilizational evolution in a case which Spengler himself had never discussed or even mentioned. In this, I believe that I have successfully drawn up a Spenglerian history of Japanese civilization with the appropriate analogies and parallels drawn - Soga clan as Carolingian dynasty, Prince Shotoku as Charlemagne, Confucianism and Chinese Legalism as Greek philosophy and Roman governance to the Westerner, Buddhism as Christianity, Saicho and Kukai as Aquinas and Dante, Ikkyu as Rousseau or Socrates, Sengoku wars and gekokujo as French Revolution, Toyotomi as Napoleon or Alexander, Edo period as Hellenistic age of urban wealth and decadence, and Meiji as Caesar or Akhenaten. Second, I believed (or maybe more accurately hoped) that perhaps Japanese civilization was younger than Western civilization. The appeal of anime among the sensitive young men of the West played a major part in this hypothesis. Unfortunately, I believe it can be seen now that Japan is, on the contrary, a bit older than the West, with us currently experiencing our own Edo Period of decadence right now (albeit with a much more globalized and inclusive character, likely due to a corruption of the limit-pushing and infinity-seeking Faustian character in contrast to the centralizing and perfection-seeking Fujian spirit of Japan), awaiting our own Meiji Restoration. I know not what will come of Japan now that they have completed their civilizational cycle. Perhaps their destiny shall become tied to that of the West, much as Egypt and Persia became extensions of the Classical world after Alexander’s conquest and Hellenism. And perhaps then a new culture shall arise around the Pacific out of the ashes of both Japanese and Western culture, just as Magian civilization rose out of the Eastern Classical world. But whatever happens shall likely be beyond our own lifetimes. May God preserve the Japanese race, so that the Earth may know their mighty achievements of culture a second time; and may we pray the same prayer for our own race.
The Japanese Prime Symbol
Spengler believed that each Civilization-Culture was metaphysically directed by and oriented towards a certain prime- or ur-symbol, which he sees as primarily having to do with said civilization’s conception of space and man’s relation with it. He sees a civilization’s great accomplishments and distinguishments in the fields of architecture, art, religion, politics, and science as expressions and explorations of this central symbol or ideal, and that a Culture loses its metaphysical energy and potential once it exhausts the last of these possibilities, at which point it transitions to a rationalistic and materialistic Civilization. “In a word - Greek soul, Roman intellect - this is the difference between Culture and Civilization.” For example, for Classical civilization the defining ur-symbol was the timeless and eternal discrete body, for Arabian civilization it was the conception of the universe as a vast magical cavern where Good fights Evil, and for Western civilization the fundamental drive has been the exploration of its ur-symbol of infinite space.
With this in mind, we may examine elements of traditional Japanese cultural expression in order to discern its own ur-symbol. From my examination of Japanese culture, I believe that the prime symbol of Japanese civilization is that of The Mountain and the Sun. This should come as no surprise, as the flag of Japan bears a sun, the country is known as “The Land of the Rising Sun,” and Japan, being an extremely mountainous country, is full of important and legendary mountains, the most famous of which is the iconic Mt. Fuji which looms large over Tokyo. But what does the ur-symbol of Mountain and Sun mean in practice, and how is it interpreted as a spatial relation? I believe that the common theme present in both symbols of the Mountain and the Sun which informs and undergirds Japanese civilization is in their centrality and radiation. The Sun is a high, central, ultimate ideal, whose rays of light radiate out and give life and illumination to all things. The Mountain is the counterpoint to the Sun, with the radiations going the opposite direction, with many perspectives and paths all ultimately leading up to the same peak. We can imagine the Divine Sun resting atop the Holy Mountain; the Sun’s rays go out in all directions, beckoning all those surrounding it to come towards it. Each man receives a different ray, but they all ultimately come from the same Sun. In a parallel pattern, each man, now drawn by an individual ray of the Sun, takes a different path up the Mountain to all ultimately reach the same peak. This is the essence of Japanese civilization: diverse unity and unified diversity. The expressions are many, but the orientation is one. One of the best examples of this I can give is the great Hokusai’s famous Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji. I believe that this is also expressed in the relative uniformity of anime art styles and the relatively consistent method of creation (i.e. how the manga almost always precedes the anime), at least in comparison to Western animation (which pursues infinite possibility in all directions). From the single ideal emerge many expressions of said ideal, just as many rays each carry the Sun’s light.
This can be contrasted with the relatively aimless and messy Chinese ur-symbol of the Wandering Way, the hither-and-thither journey through the great garden of nature guided by the divine Dao. Japanese cultural expressions are focused on cleanliness, distinction, and order in a way that Chinese cultural expressions simply are not. I see a greater focus of subject (be it a samurai, an animal, the sun, or divine Amaterasu) in Japanese watercolors when compared to their messy and meandering Chinese counterparts. Japanese pagodas and temples, while superficially similar to their Chinese ancestors, show a much greater focus and verticality, a theme which can also be seen in non-Chinese-influenced traditional Japanese architecture. The intricacies of the tea ceremony, the delicate wrapping of sushi, the perfectionist simplicity of the Zen garden, the strict discipline of the samurai. The Japanese soul is motivated by a striving towards an utterly focused and minute expression of a Divine ideal, the unbending and undimming ray of the Divine Sun of Amaterasu which touches his face and his soul.
Look at the adventures of the typically Chinese hero The Monkey King, who in his numerous powers and abilities, his wide range of companions and allies, and in the number of the places he seeks out or merely happens to end up on his journey, lives a life and gives an example which are both utterly unfocused, messy, and meandering. Now contrast that to the 11th century novel The Tale of Genji, in which the protagonist goes not on an epic meandering quest across the whole cosmos to meet Buddha, but rather dedicates his life to, among other things but most notably, the kidnapping of a beautiful 10-year-old girl to groom her into being the perfect bride in imitation of his stepmother, who was a lookalike of his real mother taken as a concubine for this reason by his lovesick father, the Emperor. Like in Egyptian, Chinese, or Western culture, the nurturing Mother figure is quite present in Japanese culture, representing Care for the future and a historic sense of destiny; but in Japanese culture, she is often conflated with the bride as well, or rather becomes the model for the bride (as seen in both The Tale of Genji and Neon Genesis Evangelion, on both extreme ends of the cultural chronology). O how focused is the Japanese on the ideal, and in Genji we see the creator of the first waifu! Remember how the Sun is believed to be not just a goddess, but the literal and physical Mother of the Emperor, who himself becomes the Sun and Mountain of Japanese politics. To the Chinese, the Emperor was merely one who happened to follow the wandering Dao correctly, and he could be usurped and replaced if he stopped following the Dao and thus lost the Mandate of Heaven. To the Japanese, this is utterly unthinkable. The Emperor is as necessary as the Sun and as immovable as the Mountain, for he embodies both in the flesh. Shogun and daimyo fought amongst each other, but none openly rebelled against the Emperor himself, in much the same way that two mountain climbers could choose different paths but never allow themselves to forget or reject their goal, the Peak.
Now, much has been said already about China, and so now we must address the relation of Japanese civilization to its two main influencers: China and India. Japan has two pseudomorphoses which oddly parallel those of the West. Western civilization was influenced in its politics and aesthetics by the old Classical empires to its immediate East, and its religious faith was imported from the Magian civilization still further East; in much the same way, Japanese civilization was influenced in its politics and aesthetics by the old Chinese empire to its immediate West (albeit much more so than even the West was ever infiltrated by Classical influence), and its religious faith was imported from the Indian civilization still further West. However, while we may see Chinese elements in Japanese art and architecture, they are pregnant with an entirely different meaning and spirit. This parallels the stark differences between original Classical statues, sturdy, immovable, archetypal, and mythic, and their Western Renaissance imitators, dynamic, passionate, tragic, and full of potential and movement. No Hellene could have made Pieta, and no Chinaman could have made The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
The Culture-Cycle of Japan
Now we get to a Spenglerian analysis of Japan’s history. From my estimation, Japan seems to be comparable in age to Western civilization, if perhaps a bit older by a couple centuries. What follows is my division of Japanese history in a Spenglerian organic scheme, with important figures pointed out and their analogies in other civilizations given.
Yayoi Period (~300 BC - ~AD 300) and Kofun Period (~AD 300 - AD 538): Japan’s pre-cultural period (~800 years). Colonization of the archipelago by Mongoloid farmers, importation of Chinese cultural forms (Chinese characters, haniwa terracotta soldiers), beginning of the Yamato Imperial House of Japan. Analogous to the Late Mycenaean period for Classical civilization, the Shang Dynasty for Chinese civilization, and the Merovingian and Carolingian Frankish periods for Western civilization.
Asuka Period (538 - 710): The Early Springtime of Japan. Buddhism imported, balancing previously-established Chinese pseudomorphosis with a new Indian pseudomorphosis. Pre-cultural period ends and proper Early Cultural Springtime begins probably around 600 (or perhaps even as late as 700). The Soga clan strongly parallels the Carolingian dynasty of the West with their status as powerful regents and mayors of the palace as well as their aggressive importation and enforcement of a foreign religion (Buddhism and Christianity, respectively) and a preference for older and more centralized imperial political forms (Chinese and Roman/Byzantine, respectively). Prince Shotoku plays the role of the Japanese Charlemagne by declaring himself equal to the Chinese emperor who inspired his family’s reforms (“From the Son of Heaven in the Land of the Rising Sun to the Son of Heaven in the Land of the Setting Sun”), much as Charlemagne was declared “Emperor of the Romans” in defiance of the Byzantine Emperor’s claim to that title. Attempts made to import Chinese-style Confucian order through the Taika reforms and the ritsuryo legal system, although confounded by native aristocracy and loyal Shinto adherents. The Taiho Code in particular rejects Chinese concepts of meritocracy and the Mandate of Heaven in favor of a preference for aristocratic birth and succession. Name of the country changed from the Chinese-imposed “Wa” (the character meaning “submissive, distant, dwarf”) to the new self-appointed “Nippon” (the character meaning “harmony, peace, balance”). In architecture, the Chinese-inspired yet already distinctly Japanese temple complex of Horyu-ji is constructed, guarded by statues of fierce fire-demons and the austere and mysterious Kudara Kannon statue and with unique solar-pointing poles atop its pagodas. Waka poetry as later collected in the Manyoshu compilation also reflects this primordial emergence of a unique Japanese consciousness out of the ashes of the zombie civilization of China.
Nara period (710 - 794): The Middle Springtime of Japan. Buddhism is finally fully embraced by Japan as a whole. The major Buddhist temple site of the era, Yakushi-ji, follows Horyu-ji in demonstrating the abandonment of the meandering convolution and excessive ornamentation (especially on the roof) of the genuine Chinese style and an increased focus on the cohesive and austere orderliness of the Whole and the unifying symbol of the solar-pointing pagoda-poles. Likewise, the uniquely delicate and ordered style of Japanese garden-making also emerges. The rise in influence of the shoen manorial estates and private militias leads to political decentralization and further feudalism. Zenith of scholarship with debates over Buddhism between the scholars Tokuitso, Saicho, and Kukai, with the latter two founding the holistic and unifying Tendai and the highly esoteric Shingon schools of Buddhism, respectively; parallels with Augustine in Magian civilization and Aquinas in Western. Some resistance to the Early Springtime Buddhist and Chinese imports in the form of the coalescence of a primordial Shinto orthodoxy through the chronicles of traditional Japanese history and mythology, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.
Heian period (794 - 1185): The Late Springtime and Early and High Summer of Japan, equivalent to the European Renaissance. Decline in initial Chinese pseudomorphosis and further emergence of a uniquely Japanese spirit, symbolized by the creation of the native katakana and hiragana scripts as alternatives to the Chinese kanji. Manorialist aristocracy dominates with economic, political, and cultural power being concentrated in rural country estates, and seminal works of Japanese literature such as The Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji are written primarily by aristocratic court ladies. Both Tendai and Shingon Buddhism rise in popularity and attempt to curry favor with the reigning aristocracy. Peak of Japanese Culture.
Kamakura period (1185 - 1333): The Late Summer and Early Autumn of Japan. Fashioning of a world of “states” (technically shogunates under the Emperor) in strict form under the Goseibai Shikimoku military code. Establishment of the “New Buddhist” schools of Rinzai and Soto Zen Buddhism, Jodo and Ji Pure Land Buddhism, and Nichiren Buddhism. Elevation of Japan as a divine land superior to China and India in the Jinno Shotoki history of the country, general anti-Chinese Shintoist puritan sentiments.
Muromachi/Sengoku period (1333 - 1603): The Long Late Autumn of Japan. Commercial cities and monetary economies emerge. Rise of absolutism in the form of the daimyo fully overthrowing the old shoen aristocratic manorialism. Beginning of the nanban trade with Westerners (namely the Portuguese and the Dutch), leading to the importation of firearms and Christianity into Japan. Origin of modern Japanese “Zen” aesthetics, along with the codification of the Japanese tea ceremony by Sen no Rikyu. Construction of the cleanly and simply beautiful and utterly un-Chinese golden and silver Kinkaku-ji and Ginkaku-ji temples. The eccentric, iconoclastic, and revolutionary philosophy and writings of the Zen poet Ikkyu may parallel the Classical Socrates, Indian Buddha, and Western Rousseau. Gekokujo revolts of social inferiors along with farmer uprisings and general civil war parallel the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Wars. Toyotomi Hideoyoshi acts as a great world-reshaping revolutionary conqueror and reformer and thus parallels Alexander in Classical civilization and Napoleon in Western civilization. With the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate comes the end of Japanese Culture and the beginning of Japanese Civilization.
Edo period (1603 - 1868): The Early Winter of Japan, an age of unity, urbanization, commercialism, kitsch, and plutocracy. Urban money and intellect dominate politics and society. Equivalent to the Hellenistic and Late Roman Republican periods in Classical civilization and the Victorian-American period (1820 - present) in Western civilization. Early incidental failures to invade China or Korea deny this era its otherwise natural expansionist tendencies, leading to a reaction of isolationism. Many samurai, enslaved by debt to the merchants (largely due to social pressure to purchase increasingly expensive consumer goods and mass-produced arts), lose their land and are forced to either become peasants or to move to an urban center. Influence of the merchant class rises. Rapid initial population growth due to economic growth and urbanization leads to Edo gaining a population of a million before cultural liberalization and high rates of abortion and infanticide lead to a population decline. Rise of mass literacy and mass culture. Urban merchants patronize schools which promote literacy, arithmetic, and lecture-halls reciting old and dead doctrines, and the rationalism, materialism, and ethical humanism of Neo-Confucian philosophy dominates the ideology of the leadership. Shintoism and Buddhism are degraded into merely intellectual philosophies of the mind rather than mystical experiences of the soul.
Imperial period (1868 - 1945): The Middle Winter of Japan when the Politics of Blood and Force overthrow the Politics of Mind and Money. Emperor Meiji is the Japanese Caesar, the monarch who defeats oligarchy, equivalent not just to the Classical Caesar but also to the Chinese Qin Shi Huang and the Egyptian Akhenaten. Military expansion and imperial ambitions, collective social energy rightfully abandons the metaphysically-exhausted and stale arts and focuses on rapid industrialization and militarization. The Japanese Empire and “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” would have been equivalent to the Roman Empire had they been allowed to follow their natural course rather than having their lifespans cut short by American intervention.
Zombie period (1945 - present): The Late Winter of Japan. The entirety of Japan is under direct foreign domination for the first time in their history, leading to a slow civilizational death analogous to the death of Egyptian and Mesopotamian under Hellenistic political and cultural hegemony after the conquests of Alexander. Remnant social energy from the preceding Imperial period allows initial economic recovery and prosperity which quickly falls away and bottoms out as the national spirit is fully broken. Birth rate plummets as the civilization loses its collective will to live. The last remnants of the spirit are channeled by individuals into consumer goods (manga, anime, technological toys, etc.) which come and go as fads. Sexual perversion and fetishism dominate, and the natural relations between the sexes are almost totally demolished. The lingering remains of the civilization and its spirit allow for some impotent resistance against Western cultural hegemony, at least for now. Japan reduced to an American military base, tourist destination, and entertainment source.
Conclusion and Final Analysis
I initially undertook this study of Japanese history for two reasons. First, I recognized that Japan had a civilizational spirit quite distinct and dissimilar from that of its neighbor and primary influence, China, and wished to see if I could observe the Spenglerian pattern of cyclical civilizational evolution in a case which Spengler himself had never discussed or even mentioned. In this, I believe that I have successfully drawn up a Spenglerian history of Japanese civilization with the appropriate analogies and parallels drawn - Soga clan as Carolingian dynasty, Prince Shotoku as Charlemagne, Confucianism and Chinese Legalism as Greek philosophy and Roman governance to the Westerner, Buddhism as Christianity, Saicho and Kukai as Aquinas and Dante, Ikkyu as Rousseau or Socrates, Sengoku wars and gekokujo as French Revolution, Toyotomi as Napoleon or Alexander, Edo period as Hellenistic age of urban wealth and decadence, and Meiji as Caesar or Akhenaten. Second, I believed (or maybe more accurately hoped) that perhaps Japanese civilization was younger than Western civilization. The appeal of anime among the sensitive young men of the West played a major part in this hypothesis. Unfortunately, I believe it can be seen now that Japan is, on the contrary, a bit older than the West, with us currently experiencing our own Edo Period of decadence right now (albeit with a much more globalized and inclusive character, likely due to a corruption of the limit-pushing and infinity-seeking Faustian character in contrast to the centralizing and perfection-seeking Fujian spirit of Japan), awaiting our own Meiji Restoration. I know not what will come of Japan now that they have completed their civilizational cycle. Perhaps their destiny shall become tied to that of the West, much as Egypt and Persia became extensions of the Classical world after Alexander’s conquest and Hellenism. And perhaps then a new culture shall arise around the Pacific out of the ashes of both Japanese and Western culture, just as Magian civilization rose out of the Eastern Classical world. But whatever happens shall likely be beyond our own lifetimes. May God preserve the Japanese race, so that the Earth may know their mighty achievements of culture a second time; and may we pray the same prayer for our own race.
