The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic , around 38β39, years ago. During this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese Book of Han in the first century AD.
Around the 3rd century BC, the Yayoi people from the continent immigrated to the Japanese archipelago and introduced iron technology and agricultural civilization. The imperial dynasty established at this time continues to this day, albeit in an almost entirely ceremonial role. The Heian period is considered a golden age of classical Japanese culture. Japanese religious life from this time and onwards was a mix of native Shinto practices and Buddhism.
Over the following centuries, the power of the imperial house decreased, passing first to great clans of civilian aristocrats β most notably the Fujiwara β and then to the military clans and their armies of samurai.
The Minamoto clan under Minamoto no Yoritomo emerged victorious from the Genpei War of β85, defeating their rival military clan, the Taira. In and , the Kamakura shogunate withstood two Mongol invasions , but in it was toppled by a rival claimant to the shogunate, ushering in the Muromachi period.
Eventually, Japan descended into a period of civil war. The Tokugawa shogunate , which governed from Edo modern Tokyo , presided over a prosperous and peaceful era known as the Edo period β The Tokugawa shogunate imposed a strict class system on Japanese society and cut off almost all contact with the outside world. Portugal and Japan came into contact in , when the Portuguese became the first Europeans to reach Japan by landing in the southern archipelago.
