The Travels of Marco Polo (1271-1295): Part VI: Medieval Japan

Marco Polo was the first European to tell us about the islands of Japan, fifteen hundred miles from the coast of China, now first discovered to the geographers of the West.

"Zipangu," says Marco, "is an island situated at a distance from the mainland. The people are fair and civilised in their manners—they possess precious metals in extraordinary abundance. The people are of gentle manners, idolaters in religion under a king of their own. These folk were attacked by the fleet of Kublai Khan in 1264 for their gold, for the King's house, windows, and floors were covered with it, but the King allowed no exportation of it." - A Book of Discovery

A Japanese fight against the Chinese at the time when Marco Polo first saw Japanese.

Although Marco Polo did not travel to Japan, he knew much about it from his association with the Khan of China. We looked at the warriors, castles, and feudal structures of Japan, comparing and contrasting them to the ones of Medieval Europe.

By the 1500s, a class of territorial military lords, or daimyo, emerges; the daimyo establish and maintain their domains (called "han"), build castles, and establish towns around their castles where their samurai retainers reside and serve in their armies. Samurai values of service to a lord and personal loyalty become central to Japanese cultural tradition over the centuries. Zen Buddhism spreads among the samurai, emphasizing personal enlightenment through discipline and meditation. Gardens of raked sand (representing water) and rocks (representing mountains) are used as places of meditation within temples. The ceremony of serving tea becomes a formalized Zen ritual. The tea room or tea house, built for this purpose, has tatami or rush mats for flooring, shoji, or sliding paper and wood screens for room dividers, and a tokonoma, or ceremonial alcove, to place scrolls of calligraphy and flower arrangements. All of these features become central to Japanese architecture and room furnishing. The warfare in this period is so intense and the society so torn apart that the major goal of the daimyo who reunify Japan in 1600 is the establishment of order. 

 

Alex's (Japan had knights called Samuari and lords called diamyo.)

photo from Layers of Learning

We also learned bout Woku, or Japanese pirates, who would sit among the many islands of the Japanese archipelago and the Chinese coast waiting for trading vessels to come along. They grew bolder over the years and raided coastal towns, even traveling up rivers in China and repeatedly looting the capital city of Korea. The Wokou were supported and commanded by coastal feudal lords of Japan. Most of them were peasants who were sent out to loot for their lord. We filled out this map from Layers of Learning.

Modern Map of Japan Art Project at Ellen McHenry's Basement

Watercolor Fans Art Project from Art Projects for Kids



Lapbook at Dynamic 2 Moms

The Travels of Marco Polo,(1271-1295) Part V: Traveling Through Tibet

He tells us, too, of Tibet, that wide country "vanquished and wasted by the Khan for the space of twenty days' journey"—a great wilderness wanting people, but overrun by wild beasts. Here were great Tibetan dogs as large as asses. -A Book of Discovery

Marco Polo described the Buddhist monks in the mountians of Tibet.

photo from Craft Knife

If you would like to learn more about modern Buddhist monks, Craft Knife has a wonderful post all about theTibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and a group of Gomang monks who visited the center from their own monastery in South India. She and other homeschoolers were invited to spend the day with them. They made little prayer flags, worked on sand art and (clay) butter art. The monks also performed a Snow Lion dance. This was such an enjoyable introduction to Buddhist monks.

We also enjoyed making mandalas.

Child in Harmony made lovely autumn mandalas, and although we were a little late to catch the fall colors, we made mandalas with the same idea in mind.

We collected leaves and flowers from our backyard...



and pressed them between the layers of a laminating pocket.

We also looked at Tibetan palace doors, which are so beautiful. The tassels on the door represented the different levels of Lamas who could enter the palace.

Painted Paper gave me the idea of making an art project out of these doors.

(top left) James, (tr) Quentin, (bl) Sam, (br) Alex

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The Spice Trade: Cinnamon

For our study of spices, we have been studying cinnamon this week. Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka, or the spice obtained from the tree's bark (similar spices derived from them, such as Cassia and Cinnamomum burmannii, are called cinnamon too). Cinnamon is harvested by growing the tree for two years and then about a dozen shoots will form from the roots. These shoots are then stripped of their bark, which is left to dry. Only the thin inner bark is used; the outer woody portion is removed, leaving metre-long cinnamon strips that curl into rolls ("quills") on drying. These quills are then cut into 5–10 cm lengths for sale. As we all know, cinnamon in is used as a spice. Americans usually use it in desserts, but other countries often use it in more savory dishes. We have used it in several projects this week. First we mapped where Sri Lanka is, and colored pictures of the cinnamon plant.

Cinnamon Cookies
These cookies are easy to make and taste like soft snickerdoodles.

Cinnamon Cocoa
Sometimes called Mexican Hot Cocoa because of its popularity in Mexico, is easy to make by just adding 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to your usual hot cocoa recipe.



Cinnamon  Teatime
We had the two above treats at a teatime.





Cinnamon Dough Ornaments



Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments

Cinnamon Spiced Nuts

We served them warm in paper cones.



Friday's plan is to make Cinnamon-Pumpkin Rolls
to have Saturday morning...

or, perhaps regular Cinnamon Rolls instead.

Cinnamon Snowflakes

We might also make Cinnamon Candies  like we did last year this time.

Other Christmas ornaments that can be made from cinnamon are Holiday Spice Picture Frame, in which cinnamon sticks frame a wallet-sized photo, Cinnamon Star Ormament, in which cinnamon sticks form a star, Cinnamon Stick Bundles, in which a few cinnamon sticks are bundled together like firewood and decorated.

Also, Cinnamon Scented Pine Cone Firestarters.

Do you have any ways you like to use cinnamon? 

You might also want to see

Part I of Spice Trade: Pepper

The Travels of Marco Polo, Part IV: China: In The Realm of Kublai Khan (1271-1295)

"The Polos had entered the realm of Kublai Khan. His palace was still a thousand miles to the east but his influence reached far. As their caravan moved...(on)...Marco met with the Khan's subjects and heard stories about the great ruler." -Marco Polo for Kids

The Kublai Khan

"In Changanor, the Polos were met by couriers sent by Kublai Khan. The Khan had been told that the Polos were near and it was his wish that they hurry to his court...he was very eager to see his Italian visitors again. He ordered his couriers to escort the Polos to his summer palace and instructed the people in towns along the path to give the travelers every comfort..The Polos stayed at the Khan's palace as his esteemed guests Marco quickly absorbed the language and customs of the court. He learned everything he could about the Khan and his kingdom" - Marco Polo for Kids

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the things that is sited as the reason why many do not believe that Marco Polo made it to China. In ancient times, before China was a united country, small cities throughout Asia had built such walls to keep themselves safe from invasion. In the third century BC Emperor Shihuangdi rose to power and ordered his subjects to build a Great Wall. He ordered his people to link together different walls of the wide spread towns to make one Great Wall. Hundreds of thousands of subjects worked for 14 years to completed it, making it a 3,000 mile long wall.
So, how could Marco Polo have missed it? Have not mentioned something so grand?

Emperor Shihuangdi was a very cruel ruler and after his death the people of China revolted against his government. The peasant who led the revolt became the next emperor, the first of the Han Dynasty. The Great Wall, which symbolized to them Shihuangdi's cruel rule, fell into disrepair. The crumbling remains allowed Genghis Khan's hoarders to invade China years later.

The Silk Road & Spice Trade
The incentive for exploration of the West into the East was for trade. The Silk Road not only was the trade route for silk but also for many trade goods.

Spices were one of the most sought after trading goods.

While we are with Marco Polo in China, I thought it would be a good time to look at silk and the Silkworm and at spices. For the next few weeks we will be taking a spice a week and studying it. This week I thought we would look at pepper.

Marco Polo's travels followed the Silk Road and the routes of Spice Trade

The Silk Road
Silk and The Silk Worm



We printed out these Silkworm Sequencing Cards so that they could learn the steps in the silk-making process. We talked about how the moth lays her eggs on the leaves of a Mulberry tree. This was particularly interesting to us since we had just identified a Mulberry tree in our yard this past summer.
We then took a caterpillar from a set of soft, squishy plastic insects and compared him to the caterpillar.

We then talked about how the caterpillar when it is ready to become a pupa spins a cocoon of silk around himself.
We then wrapped our plastic caterpillar in dental floss.

(Sorry this is a bit blurry.)
Here is our caterpillar in a pupa stage.

Next we talked about how the silk worm growers next put the cocoons in hot water to loosen the silk. We began unraveling our floss.

This was quite a fun task.

Next the silk was wound onto a spool to be used for weaving into cloth.

The Spice Trade

Pepper

I am delighted that learning about spices intertwines so well with the Christmas season. There are so many recipes and crafts using them that tie in with Christmas.

We made Black Pepper Butter Cookies.

They were very buttery tasting with just a little kick at the end. I must admit, however, that it seemed to appeal more to the adults than the small children.

We also are making peppercorn Christmas ornaments,which are so easy to make.

Other Spice Trade Posts:

Cinnamon

Ginger

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