CULTURAL IDENTITY IN
KOREA AND JAPAN

Themes

• cultural identity
• dualities: outside influence versus nativism
• "Sinicized"
  • Korea:
  • Japan:
  • Vietnam:
• worldviews evident in aesthetic values

Environment and Development

Korean Peninsula

• c. 2000 B.C.E. migration
• late 2nd cen. B.C E. Han Chinese influence
• after 220 C.E.Three Kingdoms: Paekche, Silla, Koguryo
• 669-935 Silla dynasty
• 935 Koryo usurpation; government modeled on Chinese
• 1218-1392 Mongol rule
• 1392-1910 Choson Period: Yi Dynasty

Japanese Archipelago *

• prehistory:
• c. C.E. 400 Yamato State
• C.E. 645 Taika Reforms, Prince Shotoku
• 710-794 Nara era
• 794-1185 Heian Era: Rule of Taste, Fujiwara family
• 1185-1333 Kamakura shogunate, samurai
• 1336-1573 Muromachi period, Ashikaga shogunate

Vietnam *

• Li 1009-1225
• Tran 1225-1400
• Le 1428-1788

Korean Culture and Worldview

• Chinese influence and Korean adaptation
  • Han and 3 Kingdoms
  • Tang influence on Silla
  • Koryo imitation of Tang
  • Yi: King Sejong (r. 1418-50), Confucian humanism
• Buddhism
  • Maitreya *
  • pagoda temple *
• "Koreanness":
  • kimch'i
  • Han`gul
  • architecture: Koryo Pongchongsa Temple (Kyonsangbuk-do)
  • celadon pottery 12th cent. Koryo celadon
  • native shamanism
  • sujech'on music
  • story of Ch`oyong; dragon king of the sea cermony; Ch'oyongmu court dance

Japanese worldview

• nativism versus importations
  • Shintoism *: kami, emperor
  • Confucianism
  • Buddhism:
    • temples* and shrines*
• Heian court culture, 7th-12th centuries
  • Prince Shotoku 574-622
  • Buddhism:
    • Nara
    • Flower Garland School 8th cen.
    • Esoteric Buddhism 9th cen.: Bodhisattvas
• shogunates and warrior culture, 12th-16th centuries
  • age of mappo
  • samurai
  • Ashikaga shogunate*
  • Buddhism:
    • Pure Land: Buddha Amida *
    • Zen: founder Bodhidharma [Alt Bodhidharma]
    • 13th century realism: portrait of Indian monk [World Art Treasures, Kamakura]
• Japanese aesthetic values
  • naturalness, simplicity, irregularity, asymmetry
  • literature
    • linked verse, Lady Nijo
    • courtly, Murasaki Shikibu *, Tale of Genji *
    • heroic epic, samurai war tales *;
    • Kenko, Essays in Idleness
  • Music: Gagaku See also Gagaku website
  • Theatre: Noh: dramatic dance poem (14th cen). video sample [See also noh masks]
  • Monochrome painting *, calligraphy *, "cold, withered, lonely" look
  • Landscape gardening: Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto *
  • Tea Ceremony, chanoyu *
    • Noami 1397-1471
    • Morata Shuko d. 1502
    • ceremony: room, mood; Shino ware *
    • Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea (19th cen): Teaism
  • Japanese aesthetics: simplicity, restraint; imperfect, austere; secular, pantheistic

Conclusions and Comparisons

• commonality: balancing native traditions versus Chinese influence
• difference: own cultural identities

Explore!

• Korean history and culture (source of Korean images used above, but the site is now defunct--please notify me if you know a new location for these images)
• Korean history
• Korean History Project
• Koreaweb

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