Mari's+Asia+Exhibit

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﻿japanese sword
**This is a sword blade from the Edo period. It was made from Kanewaka, a famous swordsmith of his time. He made swords during the shinto period (16th-18th century). **

**Asian society**
**In chinese society they used a merit system. They did a lot of farming as well. The Chinese rulers really supported the arts. This included music and poetry. song rulers prized art objects such as ones made of porcelain. The Chinese society created movable type. Many people could read and write in their society. There were many books.** **In Japanese society there was a social pyramid. The top was the emperor, below him was the shogun, then the daimyo, samurai, ronin, peasants, artisans, and finally, the merchants. Although most merchants probably made more money than the peasants, the peasants were of a higher status because everything was based on your loyalty. There was feudalism in Japan. This means that poor people were legally bound to work for wealthier people. Japan was very independent. it was cut off from other civilizations. When Europeans came, Japan started to trade a lot with them. After a while the emperor got worried the Europeans would try and take over and cut Japan off from other civilizations once again.** **In Indian society, India was cut off from other parts of Asia because of the Himalayas. When the Muslims were invading, there was a revival of the ancient Hindu religion. There was also the Hindu caste system, which controlled everyones lives. At this time India was under the Mughal empire. One of the rulers was Akbar, who was a very good ruler who had religious tolerance and created a strong government. India also did very well at architecture. They built many beautiful buildings but the best of all of then was the Taj Mahal. This was built for the emperor, Sha Jahan's wife who died. The Taj Mahal was built as her tomb.**

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