Similarities Between The Middle Ages Of Japan And Western Europe

Japan and Western Europe are two countries on opposite sides of the earth, yet both had a time period known as the feudal period. Japan's feudal age (12th century to the = 15th century) is comparable in many ways to Europe's feudal age (9th century through the 15th century, also known as the Middle Ages). Three specific areas that share differences and similarities between these two ages of feudalism are in politics, culture, and social structure.
An area in which the West and Japan are as different as their locations on the globe is their architecture. Just looking through a book of medieval castles one sees the exquisiteness of arches and frills adorning buildings that seem to sail to the sky. The architecture of the Middle Ages can be
This factor differs from architecture in that though the art that came out of Europe and Japan were quite different, the ideas behind them where the same. European feudal art can also be classified into Romanesque and Gothic, the time periods being the same as in architecture. The art that came out of Medieval Europe was very much based in the common religion, Christianity. Combining religious demand and Europe's typical desire to make everything frilly and flashy, many religiously based pieces came out of the Middle Ages artists. Such pieces include altars, altar vessels, crosses, candlesticks, reliquaries (containers for holy relics), and clerical robes. Along with those came copies of sacred texts and portrayals of Jesus and other Religious figures; and all, of course, were designed exquisitely in the typical European fashion. Japanese art is very comparable to European art on the grounds that it also stemmed from the common religion, Buddhism. Many Japanese artists drew mandalas, cosmic diagrams of the universe. Mandalas were used to display all different gods and deities in schematic order, as well as communicating the interrelationships between gods. Many other forms of paintings existed in Japanese art, including portraits of people the held power. These paintings mainly focused on naturalism and realism, but the most common driving force between paintings was religion.
The Samurai and the English knight both serve as a sort of mascot for their respective cultures, and they have much in common. The Samurais wore protective helmets and armor and fought with two curved swords. Samurais, who came into power from 1000 to 1200, put a great deal of value on honor and discipline. They honored skills such as horsemanship and the ability to fight with a bow and arrow, but their value was placed on a much higher level, dealing with strong, self-discipline, bravery, and total obedience and honor towards their lords. It was an unspoken standard that if a Samurai were disgraced they would ritualistically kill themselves in repentance. Knights, and the idea of chivalry, where based on the same concept but it had several differences as well. The knight wore a helmet and an outfit of interlaced metal rings called a mail that was eventually replaced with plated armor. A knight's typical weapons were lances, swards, maces and battle-axes, and like the Samurai they rode on horseback. The code of chivalry, the code intended to keep the same honor in Knighthood as there was among the Samurai, stated that a knight must protect women and the feeble, fighting against injustice and evil, along with a sworn faith and deep love for the Christian faith. On face value this shared much in common with Samurai, however the