Course Description
Ancient and medieval Japan, focusing on the institutional and cultural foundations of the Japanese state.
Athena Title
Premodern Japan
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history of premodern Japan gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of premodern Japan shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward religion, identity, and morality, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
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 Daimyo An
- Age of Chaos?
- Manifest Destiny: Hegemony Building in the Late 16th Century
- The Men Who Would Be King: Reunification Under Nobunaga, Hideyoshi & Ieyasu
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
