Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 12 minutes ago

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The Nara & Heian Periods (collectively about 710 to 1185) saw the mass import of Chinese culture & philosophical ideas into the Japanese Islands, and it is through this cultural interaction that the Japanese court, centered in Heian-kyo (modern Kyoto), developed a distinctively Japanese twist. The Court at Kyoto was notably for many different cultural developments, including the writing of The Talke of Genji, the world's first novel. It is also this period which saw the appearance of the samurai.

SOURCES:
Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey, Hane & Perez
The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. II
Japan Emerging, Friday
The Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History, Friday

#samurai
#heianperiod
#taleofgenji