Japan Civilization: Japanese History and Culture - Essay Example

Secondly, the analysis will also discuss how Confucianism was imported and ultimately adopted from Chinese culture. The purpose of choosing cultural/religious inclusions within Japanese history and culture is the fact that religion has a powerful means of altering how a given culture approaches key concepts and topics. In short, religion in and of itself can transform a culture and differentiate it in a way that other cultural inclusions may very well not.

Whereas many religions spread around the world and into new areas because a strong or resilient native religion is nonexistent, this is very much not the case with how Buddhism spread within the Japanese culture. Ultimately, Japan had many forms of resilience and native religions that were extant far before the introduction of Buddhism from Korea. However, nonetheless, this interpretation of a new religious paradigm was not something that met with a great deal of strife or violence.

Rather, Buddhism was oftentimes incorporated alongside the various native religions, such as Shintoism, that were already practiced within Japan. Moreover, Buddhism had yet another tangential effect because the writing system of the “Kanji” was Incorporated alongside the religion within Japan. In such a way, these religious interpretations existed almost unquestioned up until the Meiji restoration. Regardless of their impact, the reader should realize the role that religion plays in allowing a degree of transcultural development and integration which many other forms of cultural exchange could not hope to achieve in and of themselves.

As a result of the widespread acceptance and integration of these religiously motivated norms and mores, Japanese society continues to indicate the influences that these religious interpretations have had upon the current times. Unlike many of the other nations or cultural patterns in history, conquest, and violence did not define how either of these religious interpretations spread in and around Japan; however, the cultural impact that they had upon how society is currently evidenced and how the religious history of these movements have developed the Japanese culture.

Likewise, within the modern era, Japan has embraced a clear and distinct form of Western ideals, economics, and culture. This can be seen from the time of the Meiji Restoration up until the current era. Although Japan is one of the most resilient and strongest embodiments of culture retention within the world, the nation has, nonetheless, been able to evolve and grow with the changing of the times and adapt and react to the prescient needs that the global influences that are acting upon them invoke.

Specifically, the reader can realize that within the past several hundred years, Japan has opened itself to global commerce, shifted towards an industrialized nation, and adopted a capitalist model.