Course Description
Ancient and medieval Japan, focusing on the institutional and cultural foundations of the Japanese state.
Athena Title
PREMODERN JAPAN
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The principal objectives of the course are to provide students with fundamental knowledge of the history of ancient and medieval Japan, and to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
What Are We Doing Here? Introduction & Course Mechanics All We Could Dig Up: Archeology & Prehistoric Japan Shamans & Kami: Nativist Religion in Japan Proto-historic Japan Getting It Together: Centralization & Sino-Korean Culture The Emperor's New State Imported Cosmology: Buddhism Privatization of the State & the Age of the Fujiwara Son of Camelot: Late Heian & the Rule of Retired Emperors Romance & Court Life The Third World: Provincial Government, Private Estates, & Rural Japan Teeth & Claws of the Court: The Rise of Private Warriors Rebel With What Cause? The Gempei War & the Founding of the Shogunate A Tale of Two Cities: Conflict & Cooperation Between Court & Shogunate Taking Precedents: Justice & Landholding in Late Kamakura Zen & the Art of Shogunal Maintenance: Medieval Buddhism The Advent of Warrior Rule? The Price of Defiance: The Mongol Invasions Sometimes a Great Notion: Imperial Restoration & the Fall of the Shogunate Ashes of the Phoenix: The Muromachi Shogunate Neither Fish Nor Fowl: the Shugo & Provincial Warriors During the 14th-15th Centuries The Aesthetics of Rust & Loneliness: Art & Culture in Medieval Japan The Culture of Medieval Japan Speeding Up the Centrifuge: the Emergence of the Sengoku DaimyÅ An Age of Chaos? Manifest Destiny: Hegemony Building in the Late 16th Century The Men Who Would Be King: Reunification Under Nobunaga, Hideyoshi & Ieyasu
Syllabus