Japan and Korea

Land relations in Japan took shape in the 11th–12th centuries: private estates, the shoen, appeared; they were inherited and exempt from taxes, and landlords leased the land to poor peasants. Nobles gave land to their warriors, the samurai, in return for military service; in time part of the samurai became a separate group like European knights, petty nobles. Formally the country was ruled by the mikado, the emperor, regarded as owner of all land, but from the late 12th century power passed in practice to the strongest military commander, the shogun. The shogunate was set up at the end of the 12th century by Yoritomo of the Minamoto clan: with an army of samurai he defeated the rival Taira clan, took the title of shogun in 1192 and governed from his base at Kamakura while the emperor stayed in Kyoto — creating a dual rule. Taxes grew, and in the 14th–15th centuries famines and epidemics recurred often. Crafts and trade developed in towns: the Japanese learned from the Chinese to make silk, metalwork and lacquerware, and swords made by masters were famous and were taken to China in large numbers. The Japanese traded with Korea, China and the countries of South-East Asia; Sakai, Hyogo and Hakata were big port towns.