ABSTRACT
Sorting out the past "requires the establishment of criteria or principles that enable historians to sort through masses of information and recognize patterns of continuity and change". The most widely used and longest-standing periodization schema for Japan divides the past into "prehistoric" and "historic" epochs and sorts the latter into eras defined by the geographic seat of power. There is some variation in this system among the various subfields of history, and individual scholars sometimes disagree over the precise boundaries of some periods, but by and large. This conceptualization identifies seven major epochs: the Yamato period, beginning around 400 ce and lasting until the turn of the eighth century; the Nara period (710 to 794); the Heian period (794 to 1185); the Kamakura period (1185 to 1333). Other epochs are the Muromachi period (1333 to 1568); the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568 to 1600); and the Edo period (1600 to 1868).
