Background
The end of the 12th century was a time of transition from the aristocratic society of the nobles in the Heian period to the feudalistic society of the warrior class. Accompanying this change, the political center moved with establishment of various shogunates in the east.
Various new Buddhist movements began and literacy increased due their spread.
In the middle of 16th century, Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan. While introducing western concepts and technology, they also shared their language. Various Portuguese loanwords entered the language.
In an attempt to spread their religion, the Portuguese missionaries studied and learned Japanese. They created a number of linguistic grammars, dictionaries, and even translated some of their literature. These resources have proven extremely valuable in Late Middle Japanese studies.
Read more about this topic: Late Middle Japanese
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