Japanese history is certainly very rich and colorful; it has its share of both dark and golden times. Its origin is based on the legend about eh sun goddess where the emperors of Japan are said to have descended. The first Japanese emperor, Jimmu is said to have come from that royal lineage back in 660 B.C. and this tradition carried on and became official not until the year 1945.

The early recordings about Japanese history began around 400 A.D. from the Yamato clan who were based in the city of Kyoto. As far as Japanese history goes, the Yamato clan was able to rule over the other Japanese clans in both western and central Japan.

According to Japanese history, their close relationship with Korea has brought about the introduction of Buddhism to the country all throughout the 700s but China was the one who influenced Japan greatly. In fact, the Chinese imperial court is what inspired that Yamato clan to set up their very own imperial court in Japan. However, as clan wars continued all over Japan, the imperial court was able to fully dominate in Japan.

The emergence of the warrior clans, such as the samurai has also played a big role in Japanese history. Back in the year 1192, a military government was set up by the Minamoto clan and was lead by Yoritomo. According to Japanese history, Yorimoto was the so-called shogun or the military dictator who ruled over Japan while the imperial courts still existed, it hid itself from the people – most especially its enemies like the samurai clan.

The Japanese people first came in contact with the Westerners back in the year 1542 where a Portuguese ship have gotten off course and have been able to make their way to Japanese shores. After that, the Japanese people have been getting more and more visitors from tourists, Jesuit missionaries to Spanish, Dutch as well as English traders. Unfortunately, the Japanese leaders felt threatened by the presence of these foreigners and doubted their sincerity, which led to the revolt of the shoguns back in the Tokugawa period in 1603 up to the year 1867. All attempts by foreigners to continue trading with Japan have all failed with the exemption of a Dutch trading post in Nagasaki. The Shogun system was quickly abolished after it failed to protect the interest of the Japanese people after the Westerners led by Matthew Perry were able to embark on trade with the Japanese people but with the Japanese people left on the loosing end of the trade.

After that, Japan has acquired a new system of ruling and rose to modern power where the country was able to establish an imperial army and a parliamentary form of government was formed back in 1889.