Week 01:

    Topics:

1. Introduction to the course
2. Requirements and procedures
   
3. Basic terms and concepts
   

    Readings:

1. course syllabus
2. Hane & Perez, prefect and introduction
3. Lu, preface
4. Vaporis, preface (xi-xiv)
   

    Assignments due:  biographical essay
{return to top}


Week 02:

    Topics:

1. "Japan" before pottery
   
2. Jōmon culture
   

    Readings:

1. class protocols
2. Hane & Perez, ch. 1
   

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}


Week 03:

    Topics:

1. early state-building
   
2. Yamato and Yayoi
   

    Readings:

1. stylesheet for papers
   

    Assignments due: topic statement
{return to top}


Week 04:

    Topics:

1. significance of the move to Nara
   
2. Nara-Heian transition
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 2
   
2. Lu, ch. 2 - Impact of Chinese Civilization
   

    Assignments due: primary-source analysis #1
{return to top}


Week 05:

    Topics:

1. new influence from the Asian mainland
   
2. creation of a "creation myth"
3. elaboration of élite culture
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 3
   
2. Lu, ch. 1 - Dawn of Japanese History
   

    Resources:

1. Japan's "125" Emperors
   

    Assignments due:  none
{return to top}


Week 06:

    Topics:

1. Establishment of a tri-functional élite: aristocracy / military / clergy
   

    Readings:

1. Lu, ch. 3 - Early Heian
   

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}


Week 07:

    Topics:

1. collapse of the Heian system
   
2. civil war in countryside and capital
   
3. establishment of the Kamakura shogunate
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 4
   
2. Lu, ch. 4 - Rise of Feudal Institutions
   

    Assignments due: prospectus
{return to top}


Week 08:

    Topics:

1. local/central relations in the Kamakura period
   
2. flourishing of Buddhism

    Readings:

1. Lu, ch. 5 - Kamakura Buddhism

    Assignments due: mid-term examination
{return to top}


Week 09:

    Topics:

1. renewed tensions between court and military
   
2. Kenmu restoration
   
3. establishment of the Muromachi/Ashikaga shogunate
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 5
   
2. Lu, ch. 6 - Feudal Development Through the Muromachi
   

    Resources:

1. theatrical representations of seppuku  切腹
   

   Assignments due: primary-source analysis #2
{return to top}


Week 10:

    Topics:

1. civil war, again : the Sengoku period
   
2. shifting relations in the countryside
3. rise of the daimyō
   

    Readings:

1. Lu, ch. 7 - Civil Wars to Unification
   

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}


Week 11:

    Topics:

1. the Three Unifiers
   
2. Hideyoshi's Korean campaigns
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 6
   
2. Lu, ch. 8 - Tokugawa
3. Vaporis: 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22, 24, 26
   

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}


Week 12:

    Topics:

1. Europeans and Japanese "discover" each other
   
2. the Jesuit experience
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 7
   
2. Lu, ch. 9 - Intellectual Currents in the Tokugawa
3. Vaporis: 3, 5, 15, 16, 19, 20, 36, 39,42
   

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}


Week 13:

    Topics:

1. "centralized feudalism" of the Tokugawa shogunate

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 8
   
2. Lu, ch. 10 - End of Tokugawa Rule
3. Vaporis: 4, 10, 18, 23, 28, 29, 30, 32, 35, 37, 38
   

    Resources:

1. video:  bunraku: "Ferryman taunts...." ( / 2009)
2. video:  bunraku: "Oshichi the Grocer's Daughter"  ( / 2009)
3. video:  kabuki:  fight scene from Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura  (1748 / )
   
4. video:  kabuki: "Confrontation at Ataka-no-Seki"   from Kanjinchō  (1840 / 2007)
   

    Assignments due: completed paper
{return to top}


Week 14:

    Topics:

1. Japan's (re)opening to the outside world in the mid-19th century
   
2. resistance and accommodation to the "West"
   
3. the Bakumatsu period
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 9
2. Vaporis: 01, 09, 21, 31, 34, 40
   

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}


Week 15:

    Topics:

1. collapse of the Tokugawa
   
2. launching the Meiji era
   

    Readings:

1. Hane & Perez, ch. 10
2. Vaporis: 2, 7, 25, 27, 33, 41

    Assignments due: none
{return to top}