Timeline
Jōmon Period (10,000 BCE – 300 BCE)
During the Jōmon Period, Neolithic culture arrived in Japan (spreading from the Sea of Japan inward) from, it is believed, East and Southeast Asia. This period was marked by the presence of hunting and gathering communities, and the production of earthenware known as... Read More
Yayoi Period (300 BCE – 250 CE)
The Yayoi Period marked a break from the Neolithic culture of the Jōmon, and a shift toward a new culture that was probably influenced by immigrants from China and Korea. These new... Read More
Heian Period (794 – 1185)
Considered one of the culturally richest epochs in Japanese history, the Heian Period saw the zenith of court high culture. It also saw the inception of the nascent samurai, or bushi... Read More
Ashikaga Period (1336 – 1568)
After a three-year-long interregnum known as the Kemmu Restoration (1333 – 1336), during which the Emperor Go-Daigo futilely attempted to reassert imperial rule, the Ashikaga Period, also known as the Muromachi Period, was inaugurated with the naming of Ashikaga Takauji as... Read More
Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568 – 1600)
The Azuchi-Momoyama Period was a brief period at the end of the Warring States Era when Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order on the nation in the... Read More
Meiji Period (1868 – 1912)
With the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the final defeat of Tokugawa loyalists in the Boshin War (1868 – 1869), the Emperor Meiji was restored to direct suzerainty and the imperial court (and national capital) was moved to Edo, renamed Tōkyō (“Eastern Capital... Read More
Taishō Period (1912 – 1926)
Begun with the death of the Emperor Meiji and the ascendance of his mentally and physically infirm son, the Emperor Taishō, the brief Taishō Period saw Japan continue its... Read More
Shōwa Period (1926 – 1989)
When the Crown Prince Hirohito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne and became the Emperor Shōwa upon the death of his father in 1926, few could have imagined that... Read More
Postwar Period (1945 – Present)
After the Allied occupation was officially ended with the San Francisco... Read More