The Heian period was one of those amazing periods in Japanese history, equaled only by the later Tokugawa period in pre-modern Japan, in which an unprecedented peace and security passed over the land under the powerful rule of the Heian dynasty. Japanese culture during the Heian period flourished, as it never had before; such a culture flourishing would only occur again during the long Tokugawa peace. However, after years of peace and stability, both the Heian and Tokugawa periods experienced corruption and change that ended its peaceful reign. In this paper, I will discuss the similarities that both the Heian and Tokugawa periods had in common that produced peace and cultural flourishing as well as their collapse. ... Religion, philosophy, and art was also borrowed and used by the Japanese before the Heian period. However, the Japanese at the Heian court began to develop a culture independent of the Chinese culture that had formed the cultural life of Imperial Japan up until that point.
In what is considered to be the greatest classic of Japanese literature, the Genji Monogatari(The Tale of Genji), written by Murasaki Shikibu, illustrates the “new culture” that the Heian court developed and followed that led to peace and security for years. ... Emphasis on beauty and peace flourished not only in stories and poems, but also in real life Japanese culture and society. ... Therefore, like the Heian period, the values of the Japanese people during the Tokugawa period started to change. Except for a few uprising, the war-like mentality of the Samurai warrior and other Japanese people changed into a more peace loving and prosperous people. However, as the Japanese began to become prosperous, we will later see how the visit of Commander Perry in the mid 1800’s and the influence of the Western world, ended the reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate. ... The peace and stability that both these periods experienced lasted longer than any other period in Japanese history. ... With the raise of Confucianism, Buddhism, Shinto, Christianity, and other religions, the values of the Japanese people started to change. ... Therefore, the push for steel and iron to beef up their army and navy was a big change in Japanese history. ...
Clothing, hairstyles, and forms of dancing also replaced the more traditional styles of Japanese culture. ... Japanese men started wearing Western suits instead of the traditional Japanese kimonos. ... ” Japanese women started to whiten their teeth and use make-up, lipstick, and other forms of beauty care that swept through Japan. ... This change definitely marked the end of the last peaceful reign in Japanese history.
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