History
The major stages of the country's history at a glance
A few milestones to place the major stages in the building of modern Japan — not an exhaustive summary of its history.
Ancient Japan, the imperial court and the feudal shogunates
After the Jōmon and then Yayoi cultures, a unified state emerged under the Yamato clan; the court of Nara and then Heian (8th–12th century), strongly influenced by China, later ceded real power to military shoguns. Three shogunates followed: Kamakura (1185–1333), Muromachi (1338–1573), marked by civil wars (the Sengoku period), and then Tokugawa (1603–1868), which imposed two and a half centuries of peace under a regime of almost total isolation (sakoku). The Emperor, withdrawn to Kyoto, kept only symbolic authority.
Milestones