Daimyo What was their beliefs, values and roles. Shinto is the first religion that the Japanese people followed. The word Shinto means way of the gods. Within Shinto there is a basic life force that exists called kami. Kami is the source of all life in Shinto. Kami cannot be understood or comprehended by anyone. For a very long time, including this edo period, the Japanese followed and worshiped all the deities of heaven and earth. Some examples of these are the mountains, islands, rocks and trees. "Shinto is a belief system that has a positive, uplifting view on earth." (Oxford Big Ideas Geography and history). The Japanese respect their ancestors a great amount in Shinto. Another religion the Japanese daimyo followed was Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhism emphasises the importance of the act of practising self discipline. Many samurai practiced Zen Buddhism as they believed that it would give them significantly better discipline. This was important as the samurai followed bushido which meant they needed to lead simple frugal lives and discipline would make them better focused warriors. The aim of Zen Buddhism is to achieve the moment of enlightenment called satori. "Zen Buddhism included an emphasis on meditation". (Oxford Big Ideas Geography and History).When daimyo were old enough to manage land they were given a large amount of land that they get to manage and some samurai so that the rules and laws of the lands can be enforced, also so that if there is an attack on china it can be defended. What was life like during the isolation period As usually occurred, the daimyo competed with each other over land and power. To do this they used their samurai to either attack other places to gain land or defend their land from an attacking daimyo. In Japan, people were very protective of their traditions. Some of the people who were most protective of their traditions were the daimyo. Due to this, only the daimyo of the highest rank were allowed to carry around and use 25 fold fans. During the isolation period called Edo, people were assessed by their lands rice production to determine if they were rich enough to be classed as an daimyo. If a person produced enough rice to earn 10000 koku they were classified as an daimyo. Daimyo were classified into three categories. These categories include the the trusted and loyal daimyo, the daimyo who were nobles of the Tokugawa family and the daimyo of little standing. To ensure that the daimyo who were most loyal to the shogun stayed loyal, the trusted and loyal were given large amounts of land in strategic positions. These daimyo were the people who decided to support the shogunate before he had arisen to the powerful position of shogunate. "Although the shogun had ultimate power, he constantly needed to protect his power and authority from other challengers". (Oxford Big Ideas Geography and History). During the Edo period the shogunate was focused on preventing a revolt of the daimyo, which had overthrown quite a few shogunates. To do this the daimyo would have to talk to the other daimyo, so laws were created preventing normal communication between the daimyo. Another way of preventing revolt was requiring the daimyo to travel to Edo and spend every second year there. This put the daimyo under financial strain and limited his power, thus limiting the ability for a daimyo to acquire the resources required to revolt. When Japan opens up how will my person be Affected will they be better or worse off. The meji restoration period spelled the end of the reign of the daimyo over the land as the society moved away from the feudal system into a slightly more democratic society. As part of this change, the new government decided to order that all the daimyo had to hand back the land they were given to the emperor which they believed would help stabilise the economy. This worked because instead of the daimyo owning all the land and forcing the people living on it to pay whatever tax he decided, other people could own land. This meant that normal people could earn wealth, and were no longer stuck being peasants if they were born one. This also meant that wherever you lived there was a standard tax rate based on land, meaning that everyone was on an even playing field and no one was disadvantaged. Daimyo | Feudal Japan Daimyos. 2017. Daimyo | Feudal Japan Daimyos. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/feudal-japan/daimyo/. [Accessed 05 December 2017]. Daimyō - Wikipedia. 2017. Daimyō - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimy%C5%8D. [Accessed 05 December 2017]. Daimyo | Feudal Japan Daimyos. 2017. Daimyo | Feudal Japan Daimyos. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/feudal-japan/daimyo/. [Accessed 05 December 2017]. http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b690/Curriculum/socialstudies/ourworldview-8/ss_ourwvs8/Attachments/a_student_text/SS8SB138.pdf Easton, M., 2017. Oxford Big Ideas Geography History 8. Oxford University Press.