Periods of Japan
Q: This period came before the Heian Period and saw strong Chinese influence.
A: What is the Nara Period?
Q: A Japanese warrior class known for serving lords.
A: What is a samurai?
Q: Samurai became important because Japan needed warriors to protect this.
A: What is land/property/people?
Q: This technology made traditional samurai warfare less important.
A: What are guns/firearms?
Q: True or false: Samurai only used swords.
A: What is false?
Q: This period was known for court culture, poetry, art, and the early rise of warrior clans.
A: What is the Heian Period?
Q: The military ruler of Japan.
A: What is a shogun?
Q: Samurai usually served powerful lords called this.
A: What are daimyo?
Q: During the Meiji Restoration, Japan created a modern army based on this system.
A: What is conscription?
Q: True or false: The Emperor always had the most real political power during the shogunate.
A: What is false?
Q: This period began in 1603 and brought long peace under shogun rule.
A: What is the Tokugawa Period?
Q: A powerful Japanese land-owning lord.
A: What is a daimyo?
Q: During the Heian Period, central government became weaker, allowing these groups to gain power.
A: What are warrior clans?
Q: In 1876, samurai were banned from carrying this in public.
A: What are swords?
Q: Why did peace during the Tokugawa Period weaken the samurai as warriors?
A: Because there was less need for constant fighting.
Q: This period began in 1868 and led to rapid modernisation and the end of samurai privileges.
A: What is the Meiji Restoration?
Q: The samurai code of honour, loyalty, discipline, and courage.
A: What is bushido?
Q: The samurai rose partly because local lords needed private armies during periods of conflict.
A: Why did samurai become powerful?
Q: The samurai declined because Japan became more modern, centralised, and influenced by this part of the world.
A: What is the West/Western countries?
Q: Explain the irony of the samurai’s success.
A: Their success helped bring order and peace, but peace made them less necessary as warriors.
Q: During the Tokugawa Period, samurai became less like battlefield warriors and more like these.
A: What are government officials/administrators?
Q: A “divine wind”; later used to describe suicide attacks, but originally linked to storms that saved Japan from Mongol invasion.
A: What is kamikaze?
Q: The rise of the samurai shows that power in Japan shifted from the imperial court to this.
A: What is military rule?
Q: The samurai were not destroyed by one event; their power declined because of several changes over time. Name two.
A: What are peace, guns, modern armies, loss of privileges, Meiji reforms, or Westernisation?
Q: Were the samurai destroyed by guns alone?
A: No — guns helped change warfare, but the samurai declined because of modernisation, Meiji reforms, conscription, and loss of privileges.