Japan's tea culture began with seeds in a monk's luggage.

1191

In 1191 Eisai came back from China with Zen teachings and green tea seeds, and is credited with popularising tea in Japan.

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The event

• First shogunate in Japan1192–1333 · Kamakura. Minamoto no Yoritomo, victor of the Genpei War, received the title of shogun and set up a military government at Kamakura. Real power passed from the imperial court to the samurai and stayed there for nearly seven centuries, until 1868.

12th century

More amazing facts

• 1185 The ominous eclipse in The Tale of Igor's Campaign really happened.
• 1189 · 1199 Richard the Lionheart, an English icon, spent no more than six months of his ten-year reign in England.
• 1200 · 1215 While England was sealing Magna Carta, whole churches were being cut out of rock in Ethiopia.
• 1202 The Fibonacci numbers became famous through a puzzle about rabbits.
• 1204 · 1797 · 1815 The bronze horses of St Mark's in Venice are crusader loot.
• 1206 · 1227 The grave of Genghis Khan, founder of the largest contiguous empire in history, has never been found.

All amazing facts (1058) →