AN EMPIRE WITHOUT AN EMPEROR: Medieval Japan and the Rise of the Shogunate (1156–1392) скачать в хорошем качестве

AN EMPIRE WITHOUT AN EMPEROR: Medieval Japan and the Rise of the Shogunate (1156–1392)

This episode reconstructs the struggle for power in medieval Japan between the 12th and 14th centuries — from the Genpei War (1180–1185) to the Northern and Southern Courts (1336–1392). For nearly two hundred years, Japan existed as an empire without an emperor in the political sense. The imperial throne endured — sacred, continuous, inviolable — but executive authority shifted elsewhere. We examine: • The collapse of the ritsuryō legal state • The rise of the warrior class (bushi) • The Genpei War and the fall of the Taira • Minamoto no Yoritomo and the creation of the Kamakura shogunate • The Hōjō regency and the exile of emperors (Jōkyū Disturbance, 1221) • The Mongol invasions (1274, 1281) and structural financial collapse • The Kenmu Restoration (1333–1336) • The Northern and Southern Courts civil war This is not a romantic retelling of samurai legend. This is a structural analysis of how military patronage networks replaced aristocratic law, how regents ruled in the name of figureheads, and how legitimacy became detached from actual power. Medieval Japan did not abolish the throne. It rendered it symbolic — while authority flowed to those who could command loyalty, land, and armed men. The emperor remained. Power moved.